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COLLECTIONS 



OF 



CJje iSijotie^fjeilanti l^i^torical ^ocietp. 



VOL. IV. 






PROVIDENCE: 

K N O W L E S, V O S E & COMPANY 

MDCCCXXXVIII. 



--^o 



^- 



i1 



PREFACE. 



It has, for several years, been the desire and in 
tention of the Rhode-Island Historical Society to 
cause Callender's Historical Discourse, with ap- 
propriate notes and a selection of documents requi- 
site for its illustration, to be embodied in their pub- 
lished Collections. The original edition of the 
Discourse, which was published in 1739, has long 
been out of print. Of that edition but few copies 
remain perfect, and even those are extremely rare. 
The propriety, and indeed necessity, of its repub- 
lication has been rendered greater durhig each 
succeeding year, by the increased attention which 
has been paid to the early history of New-England, 
among the memorials of which, this work has ever 
been held in high and merited estimation. 

In the accomplishment of this object, it has been 
fortunate for the Society that the editorship of the 
present edition, with the task of preparing such 
notes and additions as it was desirable should ac- 
company it, has been undertaken by one qualified 
to discharge it with so nuich ability. The original 
materials which Professor Elton has contributed, 
the information contained in the notes, respecting 
distinguished individuals whose names are con- 
nected with the history of the Colony during the 
first century, add much to the value of the work ; 
and when it is considered how little has been 



4 PREFACE. 

know a in relation to the life of Mr. Callender, we 
feel confident that every reader of the Discourse 
will be gratified to find so interesting a ?»Iemoir of 
its author. 

The Appendix of historical documents is exten- 
sive and well selected. All the papers wdiich it 
contains, not only deserve a place in the Collections 
of the Society, hut are also particularly valuable 
as explanatory of the facts narrated in the Dis- 
course, conveying, as they do, full information on 
many points to which brief references only could 
be made in a work written for such an occasion. 
With regard to the manner in which these docu- 
ments are here published, the Committee are happy 
in bearing testimony to the unw-earied care and 
minute exivmination which have been bestow^ed in 
their prepa.ration for the press. In every instance 
they have been carefully compared with the 
original;^, and no pains have been spared to ensure 
their correctness. 

In presenting this volume, the Committee can 
therefore speak with much confidence respecting 
the manner in wliich Professor Elton has met the 
wishes of the Historical Society. He is entitled to 
the thanks of that Society, for the valuable ad- 
dition which he has made to their Collections, and ; * 
deserves the grateful remembrance of the people V 
of our State, for the satisfactory manner in which 
he has illustrated this history of their forefathers. 
For the Committee of Publication ; 
ALBERT G. GREENE, 
WILLIAM G. GODDARD, 
Providence, April, 1838. 



AN 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, , 

if 



THE CTYIL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS 

OF THE COLONY OF 

RHODE-ISLAND. 

BY JOHN C A L L E N D E R, M. A. 

WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR ; BIOCRAPIIICAL NOTICES OF SOME 
OF HIS DISTINGUISHED CONTEMPORARIES ; 
AND ANNOTATIONS AND ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS, ILLUSTRATIVE OF 
THE HISTORY OF RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLAN- 
TATIONS, PROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT TO THE 
END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 

BY ROMEO ELTON, M. A., F. S. U. S., 

Member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries, at Copenhagen ; 
one of the Vice-Presidents of the Rhode-Island Historical Society; 
and Professor of the Latin and Greek Languages and Lite- 
rature in Brown University. 



Xescirc quid antea f/unm natus sis acciihrit, id rst semper esse jivervm. 

Cicero. 



PROVIDENCE: 
K N O \V L E S, V O S E A- C O M P A N Y. 

1838. 



^ 



.'^. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1838, by Romeo 
Elton, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 
within and for the District of Rhode-Island. 



CONTENTS. 

Page 

Memoik of the Rev. John Callender, M. A. - - 9 
Dr. Cotton Mather. — Letter sent to Dr. Mather's Church, on Mr. 

Callender's ordination, ----- 27 

Thomas Mollis, Esq. - - - - - - 28 

Professor Wigglesworth, ----- 29 

Biographical sketch of Dean Berkeley, - - - - 30 

Letter from the first Baptist Church in Boston to the Congrega- 
tional Church in Cambridge, - - - - 37 

Rev. John Comer, - - - - - - - 38 

Biographical notice of Rev. Nathaniel Clap, - - - 39 

Mary Callender. — Dr. Waterhouse's sketch of Jier character, 40 

Callender's Historical Discourse, - - - 47 

No. APPENDIX. 

1. Biographical notice of Rev. Thomas Prince, - - 177 

2. Ante-Columbian Discoveries, .... 173 
Biographical notice of President Stiles, - - - 186 

3. Voyage of Verrazzano to America, - - - - 189 

4. Roger Williams. — His Address to the Clergy, - - 190 

5. Rev. William Blackstone. - . . . . 202 

6. Deed of the chief Sachems of Narragansett to Roger Williams, 204 

7. Deed of Roger Williams to his twelve original associates, 20G 

8. Deposition of Roger Williams, .... 097 

9. Biographical notice of John Clarke, - - . . 210 

10. Form of Civil Compact agreed to by the first settlers on the Isl- 

and of Rhode-Island, . . - . . 212 

11. Indian Deed of the Island of Aquetneck, - - - 214 

12. Deposition of William Coddington, - - - 220 

13. Reference to Simplicity's Defence ; — and the Early History of 

Narragansett, ...... 221 

14. The first Patent of Rhode-Island, - - - 221 

15. Letter to the Massachusetts Governor and Assistants, from mem- 

bers of Parliament, in commendation of Roger Williams, 220 



'■^: CONTENTS. 

Page. 

IG. Laws of Rhode-Island, 1047, . ... 228 

17. Letter from Oliver Cromwell to Rhode-Island, - - 230 

18. From the General Assembly to the Commissioners of the United 

Colonies, ...... 231 

19. Letter of Commissioners to John Clarke, - - - 234 

20. Commission to John Clarke, .... 239 

21. The Charter granted by King Charles II. July 8, 1GG3, - 241 

22. Decision of Carr, (fcc, relative to Misquamacock, - 262 

23. Commission from Carr, &c., 1665, .... 263 

24. Establishment of the Episcopal Church in Rhode-Island, 265 

25. Philip's War, 1675, 267 

26. List of the Presidents and Governors of Rhode-Island, 2G8 



MEMOIR 

OF THE 

REV. JOHN CALLENDER, AM 



Biography, as well as history, is too frequently 
employed in eulogizing men who have distinguished 
themselves merely as crafty statesmen or as ambi- 
tious warriors. The historian and the biogra}3her 
vsay little of those characters who are actuated by 
christian principle, and who seek not the praise of 
Tnen, but of God. Moral excellence, however, is 
the most beneficial to mankind ; and it is but justice 
to allow it to participate in those honors which are 
more usually appropriated to men of great depravity 
of heart, and who employ their fellow men only as 
tools for advancing their own ambition. The biog- 
raphy of a person of unostentatious piety and good- 
ness, may afford more useful instruction to the ma- 
jority of readers, than the dazzling exploits of an 
Alexander the Great, a Julius Csesar, or a Buo- 
naparte. 

The subject of the following memoir, died nearly 
a century ago, and it is to be regretted that the 
materials to fill up his character are not more 
ample; particularly those parts of his private con- 



10 MEMOIR OF 

duct, which would have made us familiar with thi» 
excellent man, and imparted a graphic reality to 
the portrait. The imperfect sketch which follows, 
will not do justice to the subject, but it may, at 
least, furnish a few facts respecting a man who 
possessed a mind of no ordinary vigor, and whose 
memory is still precious. 

The Rev. John Callender was born of reputable 
parents, in the city of Boston, Mass., A. D. 1706- 
His father, John Callender, Esq., was the son of the 
Rev. Ellis Callender, the highly honored and es- 
teemed minister of the first Baptist Church in 
Boston from 1708 till 1726. Elisha Callender, his 
son, uncle to the subject of this memoir, became 
his successor in the pastoral office. This gentle- 
man was educated at Harvard College, and was 
one of the fourteen students who were graduated 
in the year 1710. At his ordination, which took 
place May 21, 1718, three Congregational ministers 
gave their assistance, viz. Dr. Increase Mather, 
Dr. Cotton Mather, and Rev. John Webb. Dr. 
Cotton Mather preached the ordination sermon, 
which was entitled. Good 3Ien United* 

This expression of Christian feeling on the part 
of the Congregational ministers in Boston, and the 
catholic spirit which existed at Cambridge, in- 
duced Thomas Hollis, Esq. of London, a wealthy 
merchant, of the Baptist denomination, to bestow 

* See note A . 



JOHN CALLENDER. 11 

very large benefactions upon Harvard College, 
Besides making large additions to its library and 
philosophical apparatus, he founded two professor- 
ships in that Institution, one of Divinity, and one of 
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and endowed 
the College to the amount of a hundred pounds a 
year, to be distributed among ten scholars of good 
character.* 

Mr. Callender continued faithful and successful 
in the pastoral office, till his death, March 31, 1738, 
A few days before he died, he said, " When I look 
on one hand, I see nothing but sin, guilt and dis- 
couragement ; but when I look on the other, I see 
my glorious Saviour, and the merits of his precious 
blood which cleanseth from all sin. I cannot say, 
I have such transports of joy as some have had, 
but through grace I can say, I have gotten the 
victory over death and the grave." His obituary 
in the public newspaper, three days after his death, 
was in the following words: "On Friday morning 
last, after a lingering sickness, deceased the Rev. 
Mr. Elisha Callender, minister of the Baptist Church 
in this town ; a gentleman universally beloved by 
people of all persuasions for his charitable and 
catholic way of thinking. His life was unspotted, 
and his conversation always affable, religious, and 
truly manly. During his long illness, he was re- 
markably patient, and, in his last hours, like the 
blessed above, pacific and entirely serene; his 

' See note B. 



12 MEMOIR OF 

senses were good to the last. ' I shall,' said he, 
' sleep ill Jesus,' and that moment expired, very 
much lamented by all that knew him." He pub- 
lished a century sermon in the year 1720, com- 
memorative of the landing of our forefathers at 
Plymouth, which has furnished important informa- 
tion for succeeding historians. 

Of the early years of John Callender, the sub- 
ject of the following narrative, Ave have little infor- 
mation. At the age of thirteen he entered Harvard 
College, where he received the benefit of Mr. Holliss 
donation. The Hon. John Leverett, F. R. S. was 
at that time its President, a man whose mental 
excellencies were adorned by the noblest moral 
qualities. Here, his vigorous understanding was 
cultivated, a proper direction given to his activity, 
and his mind imbued with the principles of virtue 
and religion. He graduated from tliat Institution in 
1723. In tlie same year, he was baptised on a pro- 
fession of faith, and united with the first Baptist 
Church in Boston, of which his uncle was pastor. 
He was licensed to preach by this church, in June, 
1727. In August, 1728, he received and accepted 
an invitation from the Baptist Churcli in Swansey, 
the oldest in Massachusetts, to supply their pulpit, 
and continued laboring among tliis people until 
February 15, 1730. Soon after, he received a re- 
quest from the first Baptist Church in Newport, to 
visit and preach to them. This was the second 
Baptist Church in America, and was founded in 



JOHN CALLEKDER. 13 

1G44. After long and mature deliberation and 
earnest prayer, he accepted the invitation of that 
Church to the pastoral office, and was ordained, 
October 13, 1731. Rev. Elisha Callender, of Bos- 
ton, preached on the occasion, from Matthew xxviii; 
18, 19. Mr. Callender continued the faithful and 
beloved pastor of this church and congregation, till 
he was called to his final rest. 

Soon after his settlement in Newport, he became 
a member of a literary and philosophical society es- 
tablished in that place. The celebrated Dean, 
afterwards Bishop Berkeley, who resided there at 
that time, is thought to have suggested its forma- 
tion.* The society was select, and some of its 
members were men of great intellectual power — 
among wdiom were Judge Edward Scott, Hon. 
Daniel Updike, Governor Josias Lyndon, Dr. John 
Brett, Hon. Thomas Ward, Hon. William Ellery, 
Rev. James Honyman, Rev. James Searing, Rev. 
John Checkley, jun., and Rev. Jeremiah Condy, of 
Boston. Among the occasional members were 
Governor Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Johnson, 
D. D., afterwards President of Columbia College, 
New- York. As this was probably one of the 
earliest societies of the kind in this country, we 
have thought proper to subjoin a copy of its rules 
and regulations, the original of which, (in the hand 
writing of Judge Scott,) is in the archives of the 
Rhode-Island Historical Societv. 

* See note C. 



14 MEMOIR OF 

"Whereas, A. D. 1730, Messrs. Daniel Updike, 
Peter Bours, James Searing, Edward Scott, Henry 
Collins, Nathan Townsend, Jeremiah Condy and 
James Honeyman, jun. did form a Society for the 
promotion of Knowledge and Virtue, by a free con- 
versation according to several regulations by them 
agreed. 

" We the present members of the said Society, 
finding it necessary on many accounts for the more 
effectual answering the end of our Institution, do 
agree to enter into a more strict engagement, and 
establish the following as the laws and orders to 
be observed in this Society. 

"1. The members of the Society shall meet every 
Monday evening, at the house of one of the mem- 
bers, seriatim, and converse about and debate, some 
useful question in Divinity, Morality, Philosophy, 
History, &c. 

"2. The member who proposed the question, 
shall be moderator, (pro hac vice) and see that 
order and decency be maintained in all the debates 
and conversation. 

" 3. Every member in order shall freely give his 
opinion with his reasons, having liberty to explain 
the sense of the question, or his own expressions, 
and to retract or alter his opinion as to him shall 
seem right. 



JOHN CALLENDER. 15 

" 4. The member at whose house we meet shall 
propose a question for the next evening's conver- 
sation, the Society to judge of its propriety and 
usefulness, only nothing shall ever he proposed or 
debated which is a distinguishing religious tenet of 
any one member. 

" 5. No member shall divulge the opinion or ar- 
guments of any particular member as to any sub- 
ject debated in the Society, on penalty of a per- 
petual exclusion. Nevertheless, any member may 
gratify the curiosity of any that may inquire the 
names, number, general design, method and laws 
of the Society, and the opinions or conclusions of 
the major part, without discovering how any par- 
ticular member voted. 

" 6. The moderator for the time being shall keep 
a book, in which he shall register the questions and 
the solutions or answers, and another for the fines 
and forfeits that may become due. 

"7. The question shall be propounded by the 
moderator exactly at seven in the evening, or if 
he be then absent, another shall be chosen in his 
room, and whoever shall come after that, shall for- 
feit one shilling ; whoever is absent the whole 
evening, shall forfeit two shillings and six pence ; 
only the moderator shall forfeit double. Whoever 
shall make it an excuse to avoid giving his opinion, 
that he has not thought of the question, or has for- 
I 



16 MEMOIR OF 

2^ot what the question is, shall forfeit one shilliiii^. 
Whoever is improv ided of a proper question, on his 
turn to propound it, shall forfeit one shillmg. He 
that omits to register the question or solution in his 
turn, shall forfeit two shillings and six pence. A 
treasurer shall he chosen once in three months, and 
whoever shall refuse an office when chosen, shall 
forfeit five shillings. And every treasurer that is 
deficient in his duty in collecting the fines, shall 
pay them himself No excuse shall he taken for 
absence hut sickness in person, or family, or the 
being out of town. The fines shall be gathered 
every month, and be laid out in books, (fcc, as the 
Society shall think best. Whoever shall absent 
himself a quarter of a year successively, Avithout 
sufficient excuse, shall have his name struck out of 
the list. 

"8. Any member may bring with him any friend 
or stranger who shall desire it, and whom he may 
think may not be offensive to any other member. 

" 9. Any member may propose a. candidate, but 
none shall be admitted without the full and free 
consent of CA'ery member, to be manifested in 
written votes, after a month's probation. However, 
the same person that has been negatived, may be 
propounded again by another member. 

" 10. If the Society incline to choose any gentle- 
men at a distance to be occasional members, their 



JOHN CALLENDER. 17 

election shall l3e made in the same manner ; they 
shall be subject to the same rules of secrecy, and 
have the same liberty to speak and debate any sub- 
ject with the other members, and shall vote in all 
occasional matters. 

"11. The laws shall be publicly read in the So- 
ciety every three months, on the same evening that 
the treasurer is chosen. And every member shall 
then produce his copy, upon the forfeiture of two 
shillings and six pence. 

" 12. Every member shall promote the good of 
the Society, as far as lies in his power. 

" 13. Each of the present members shall sign 
these articles in the book, and shall have a copy of 
them, signed by the moderator for the time being, 
to be and remain as a proof and token of our fellow- 
ship and society. And every gentleman that may 
hereafter be chosen a member, shall enter his name 
in the same manner, and have a copy of the laws 
signed as above, together with a list of the Society, 
and a copy of the additional or explanatory laws 
tliat may hereafter be made. 

Newport, February 2, 1735. 

DANIEL UPDIKE, JOHN BRETT, 

PETER BOURS, CHARLES BARDIN, 

EDWARD SCOTT, J. HONYMAN, jun. Feb. 9th. 

NATHAN TOWNSEND, HEZ. CARPENTER, May 24, 173G 

SAMUEL WICKHAM, JAMES SEARING, 



18 MEMOIR OF 

THOMAS WARD, JOSEPH JACOB, 

JOSIAS LYNDON, WILLIAM ELLERY, Oct. 3, 17:^7 

JOHN CALLENDER,jun. JOS. SYLVESTER, 

SUETON GRANT, JOHN CHECKLEY, jun. 

Occasional Members. 
JOHN ADAMS, JOHN WALLACE, 

DANIEL HUBBARD, STEPHEN HOPKINS, 

JEREMIAH CONDY, SAMUEL JOHNSON. 

" Oct. 3, 1737. Voted, That every member who 
shall neglect to bring or send the book of fines, 
shall forfeit two shillings and six pence. A true 
copy, compared with the Society's book, by 

EDWARD SCOTT, Moderator." 

One of the objects of this Society was the col- 
lection of valuable books. It was subsequently 
joined by Abraham Redwood, Esq. who gave the 
the sum of five hundred pounds sterling to increase 
its library, on condition the Society would build a 
suitable edifice. The Society obtained a charter 
from the Colony in 1747, by the name of The 
Company of the Redwood Library. In 1748, the 
present classical building was erected, from a de- 
sign by Harrison, the assistant architect of Blen- 
heim House, England. This library contains many 
choice and rare European editions. 

Apart from his more ordinary employment and 
influence as a minister of the gospel, Mr. Callender 
acted an important part in relation to the more 
general and public interests of the town and State. 



JOHN CALLENDER. 19 

In civil matters he was inucli consulted, and fre- 
quent and honorable mention of his name appears 
on the records of the town. His character com- 
manded the respect and confidence not only of his 
on n church and society, but also of the State of 
which he was an intelligent and useful citizen. 

In 1739, Mr. Callender published a historical 
discourse on the civil and religious affairs of the 
Colony of Rhode-Island, from the settlement in 
1638 to the end of the first century, usually known 
by the name of the " Century Sermon." This is 
the only history of the Colony or State of Rhode 
Island, which has been written, and though small, 
it is a noble and enduring monument to the talent 
and piety of its author. It is written with great 
fidelity, is disthiguished by solid and profound phi- 
losophical views, and by an ardent attachment to 
the ])rinciples of civil and religious freedom. It 
breathes a spirit of candor, impartiality, and en- 
lightened piety, in ever page. Mr. Callender evi- 
dently took great pains in investigating the sources 
from which he drew his informatioji, and his ob- 
servations on men and things indicate an acute, 
observant and reflecting mind. 

In the same year, he published a sermon preached 
at tlie ordination of Mr. Jeremiah Condy, A. M., 
to the pastoral care of the Baptist Church in Bos- 
ton. In this sermon, the liberal sentiments of Mr. 
Callender on the subject of free communion, are 



20 MEMOIR OF 

fully exhibited. After earnestly inculcating the 
duty of all Christians loving one another as 
brethren, he observes, " But I have trespassed too 
much upon your patience already, and shall there- 
fore only beg leave to add, that if that glorious 
2yrinciph which was a fundamental article in the 
constitution of the first Baptist Church, gathered 
in this Province, could be fully acted upon, we 
might with the utmost propriety, join the heavenly 
host, and sing, Glory to God in the highest : Peace 
on earth, and good will towards and among men. 
For they declared in their church covenant, " That 
union to Clirist was the sole gr'oimd of their com- 
munion witli each other, and that they were ready 
to accept of, receive to, and hold churcli-comniunioii 
icith, all such, as in a judgment of charity, v'cre 
fellow-member's with them in their head Christ Jesus, 
though differing in such controversial jwints^ as arc 
not absolutely and essentially necessary to salvation^* 

The religious sentiments of Mr. Callender were 
ever thus fearlessly avowed and honestly main- 
tained. His inflexible integrity did not permit him 
to conceal the convictions of his mind on any sub- 
ject which he thought affected the social, political 
or moral interests of mankind. 

Mr. Callender was ingenious in devising plans of 
usefulness, and especially in endeavoring to pro- 
mote the welfare of the young. In 1741, he pub- 

* See note D. 



JOHN CALLENDER. 21 

lislied a sermon on the advantages of early religion, 
preached to a society of young men in Newport. 
This sermon is replete with somid practical in- 
struction, flowing from a heart warmed with the 
love of God. 

In the year 1745, Mr. Callender published a dis- 
course occasioned by the death of his friend, the 
Rev. Mr. Clap, in which he pays a tribute of affec- 
tionate veneration to his memory. Mr. Callender's 
sermon was founded on Hebrews xiii. 7, 8. 

The prominent traits in the character of Mr. 
Clap, are faithfully delineated in the following 
extracts from that sermon : 

" The main stroke in his character was his eminent 
sanctity and piety, and an ardent desire to promote the 
knowledge and practice of true godliness in others. As 
his understanding was above the common level, so was 
his learning, though he studiously concealed it. He 
thought his station required more than common instances 
of innocency, self-denial and caution. 

" He was zealously attached to what he considered as 
the true doctrines of grace, and to the forms of worship 
he thought to be of divine institution. But his charity 
embraced good men of all denominations. He had little 
value for mere speculative, local, nominal Christianity, 
and a form of godliness without the power. He insisted 
most on those things on which our interest in Jesus Christ 
and our title to eternal life must depend : that faith 



22 MEMOIR OF 

by which we are justified and have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus, and that repeiitance towards God 
and 77ew obedience^ which are the necessary effect and 
evidence of our regeneration, and the proper exercise of 
Christianity. 

" He abounded in contrivances to do good by scattering 
books of piety and virtue, not such as minister questions 
and strife, but godly edifying, and put himself to a very 
considerable expense, that he might, in this method, 
awaken the careless and secure, comfort the feeble mind- 
ed, succor the tempted, instruct the ignorant, and quicken, 
animate and encourage all. 

"He abounded in acts of charity to the poor and ne- 
cessitous — to whom he was a kind father and guardian. 

" In fine, he was a public blessing, as an able minister 
of the New Testament, an example of unsuspected piety, 
and an honor to religion. 

" There are two things in which he excelled in so re- 
mark'able a manner, that I must not omit them : his care 
about the education of children, and his concern for the 
instruction of servants. 

" The conclusion of his life and ministry was a peace- 
ful and happy death, without those raptures which some 
boast of, but with perfect resignation to the will of God, 
and good hope and humble confidence in Christ Jesus, 
who was the sum of his doctrine and the end of his con- 
versation."* 

* Sec Note E. 



JOHN CALLENDER. 23 

Mr. Callender collected many papers relating to 
the history of the Baptist denomination in this 
country, which were used by the Rev. Isaac 
Backus in his Church History of New-England. 

After a long and painful illness, which he bore 
w ith Christian resignation, he died in full expecta- 
tion of the blessedness of the righteous, January 
26, 1748, in the 42d year of his age. 

Mr. Callender, on the 15th of February, 1730, 
was married to Elizabeth Hardin, of Swansey, 
Mass. By this lady he had six children : Eliza- 
beth, Mary, John, Elias, Sarah and Josias. The 
following description of his person is taken princi- 
pally from an original portrait : He was about the 
middle size, graceful and well proportioned. His 
complexion was fair, his features were regular, his 
forehead was high and prominent, and in his coun- 
tenance there was an admirable mixture of gravi- 
ty and sweetness. His eyes were of a dark blue, 
and said to be remarkable for their intelligence and 
brilliancy. 

The character of Mr. Callender, both in public 
and private life, was truly amiable and excellent. 
Whether viewed as a citizen, a relative, a friend, a 
christian, or a minister of the gosj^el, he adorned 
the sphere in which he moved. 



24 MEMOIR or 

His remains were interred in llie common bury- 
ing ground at Newport, where a tomb Avas erected 
to his memory, on which is the foUowing inscription, 
composed by Dr. Moffatt, a celebrated physician 
of that town : 

"Confident of awaking, here repose th 

JOHN CALLENDER; 

Of very excellent endowments from nature, 

And of an accomplished education, 

Improved by application in the wide circle 

Of the more polite arts and useful sciences. 

From motives of conscience and grace 

He dedicated himself to the immediate service 

Of God, 

In which he was distinguished as a shining 

And very burning light by a true and faithful 

Ministry of seventeen years in the first Baptist 

Church of Rhode-Island ; where the purity 

And evangelical simplicity of his doctrine,confirmed 

And embellished by the virtuous and devout tenor 

Of his own life, 

Endeared him to his flock, and justly conciliated 

The esteem, love and reverence of all the 

Wise, w^orthy and good. 
Much humility, benevolence and charity 
Breathed in his conversation, discourses and writ- 
ings, 



JOHN CALLENDER. 25 

Which were all pertinent, reasonable and useful. 

Regretted by all ; lamented by his friends ; and 

Deeply deplored by a wife and numerous issue, 

He died, 

In the forty-second year of his age, 

January 26, 1748 ; 

Having struggled through the vale of life 

In adversity, much sickness and pain. 

With fortitude, dignity and elevation of soul. 

Worthy of the Philosopher, Christian and Divine." 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 



Note A — p. 10. 
Dr. Cotton Mather, in his ordination sermon, 
after aUuding to the severities which had been 
used against Christians by the ruling powers, says : 

"Cursed the anger, for it is fierce, and the wrath, for it 
is cruel ; good for nothing but only to make divisions in 
Jacob and dispersions in Israel. Good men, alas ! good 
men have done such ill things as these ; yea few churches 
of the reformation have been wholly clear of these iniqui- 
ties. New-England, also, has in some former times done 
something of this aspect, which would not now be so 
well approved of; in which, if the brethren in whose 
house we are now convened, met with any thing too 
unbrotherly, they now with satisfaction hear us expres- 
sing our dislike of every thing which looked like perse- 
cution in the days that have passed over us." 

The following is the copy of the letter sent to 
the Church under the care of Dr. Mather and Rev, 
Mr. Webb, on Mr. Callender's ordination : 

'• Honored and beloved in the Lord, 

" Considering that there ought to be a holy felloAvship 
maintained among godly Christians, and that it is a duty 



28 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

for US to receive one another as Christ also received us to 
the glory of God, notwithstanding some differing per- 
suasions in matters of doubtful disputation ; and although 
we have not so great latitude as to the subject of baptism 
as the churches of New-England generally have ; not- 
withstanding, as to the fundamental principles in your 
doctrine of Christ, both as to the faith and order of the 
gospel, we concur with them ; being also satisfied that 
particular churches have power from Christ to choose 
their own pastors, and that elders ought to be ordained in 
every Church ; and having chosen our well beloved 
brother, Elisha Callender, to be our pastor, we entreat 
you to send your elders and messengers to give the Right 
Hand of Fellowship in his ordination." 

Note B — p. IX. 

Tliomas Ilollis, Esq., was a u;reat patron and 
friend of learning. He was a Baptist, but not a 
sectarian. What he required in the character of the 
professor of divinity was, "tliat he should be a man 
of solid learning in divinity, of sound and orthodox 
principles, one who is well gifted to teach, of a 
sober and pious life, and of a grave conversation."* 

The following extract is taken from a sermon 
delivered before the General Court, by Dr. Benja- 
min Colman, of Boston, occasioned by the death of 
Mr. HoUis : 

" He was one of those righteous men who should be 
had in everlasting remembrance. Like Araiinah^ he gave 

" Pierce's History of Harvard University, Ap. p. 96. 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 29 

as a prince. Of his own mere motion he poured in upon 
lis, and upon other places also, from time to time, as a 
hving spring whose waters fail not. That which is sin- 
gular in the piety and benefits of Mr. HoUis unto these 
churches was, that he was not strictly of our way, nor in 
judgment with us in point of infant baptism ; yet his 
heart and hand was the same to us, as if lue had been one 
in opinion and practice with him. And in this let him 
stand a teaching pattern and example to us of a noble, 
Christian, and catholic spirit of love." 

" It was some account he received from us of the free 
and catholic air we breathe at Cambridge, where protes- 
tants of every denomination may have their children edu- 
cated, and graduated in our college, if they behave with 
sobriety and virtue, that took his generous heart and 
fixed it on us, and enlarged it to us. And this shall be with 
me among his distinguishing praises, while we rise up and 
bless hismemory ; that is, bless God in remembrance of all 
the undeserved favors done us by him." — Colman^s Life. 

The first professor of divinity in Harvard College, 
Avas Rev. Edward Wiggleswortli, D. D., chosen 
in 1721, at the age of thirty, lie was a classmate 
of Rev. Elisha Callender, and occupied the divini- 
ty chair more than forty years, with a high repu- 
tation fi)r piety and learning. 



30 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

Note C— p. 13. 

Biograp/dad Skctc/i of Dean Berkeley^ (iftcrwarcU 
Bisliop of Cloync, u'ho resided on Rhode-Island^ 

1729—1731. 
Dr. George Berkeley was born at Kilkrin, in 
Ireland, in 1684. He was educated at Trinity 
College, Dublin, where he distinguished himself by 
his literary attainments and the superior powers 
of his mind. He became a Fellow of Trinity 
College in 1707 ; and was created D. D. in 1717. 
By the recommendation of Swift, he accompanied, 
as chaplain and secretary, the celebrated Earl of 
Peterborough, who was appointed ambassador to 
Sicily; and afterwards, when disappointed in his 
expectations of preferment, he spent four years on 
the Continent, as travelling tutor to the son of Dr. 
Ashe, Bishop of Clogher. Shortly after his return 
to London, in 1721, he was appointed chaplain to 
the lord lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Grafton. 
By a legacy of Miss Vanhomrigh, the Vanessa of 
Swift, his fortune was considerably increased. In 
1724, on being promoted to the Deanry of Derry, 
he resigned his Fellowship. He now published his 
proposals for the conversion of the American 
savages to Christianity, by the establishment of a 
College in the Bermuda Islands. The plan was 
very favorably received ; and he obtained a charter 
for a College, in which he was named the first 
President. He received, also, from Sir Robert 
Walpole, a promise of a grant of twenty thousand 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 31 

pounds to carry it into effect. Having resigned his 
living, worth eleven thousand pounds per annum, 
and all his hopes of preferment, he set sail for the 
field of his distant labors, with his family, and three 
Fellows of Trinity College, and several literary 
and scientfiic gentlemen. He landed at Newport, 
after a tedious passage of five months, January 23, 
1729. His arrival is thus announced in the New- 
England Weekly Journal : 

"Newport, January 24, 1729. 
'' Yesterday arrived here, Dean Berkeley, of London- 
derry, in a pretty large ship. He is a gentleman of mid- 
dle stature, of an agreeable, pleasant, and erect aspect. 
He was ushered into the town with a great nimiber of 
gentlemen, to whom he behaved after a very complaisant 
manner. ' Tis said he purposes to tarry here with his 
family about three months." 

The following extract of a letter was written by 
Dean Berkeley to Thomas Prior, Esq., of Dublin, 
soon after his arrival at Newport : 

^ "Newport, in Rhode-Island, April 21, 1729. 
" I can by this time say sometbing to you, from my 
own experience, of this place and people. The inhabi- 
tants are of a mixed kind, consisting of many sects and 
subdivisions of sects. Here are four sorts of Anabaptists, 
besides Presbyterians, Quakers, Independents, and many of 
no profession at all. Notwithstanding so many differences, 
here are fewer quarrels about religion than elsewhere, the 
people living peaceably with their neighbors of whatsoever 



32 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

persuasion. They all agree in one point, that the church 
of England is the second best. The climate is like that 
of Italy, and not at all colder in the winter than I have 
known it every where north of Rome. The spring is 
late ; but to make amends, they assure me the autumns 
are the finest and longest in the world ; and the sum- 
mers are much pleasanter than those of Italy by all ac- 
counts, forasmuch as the grass continues green, which it 
doth not there. This island is pleasantly laid out in hills, 
and vales and rising grounds, hath plenty of excellent 
springs and fine rivulets, and many delightful landscapes 
of rocks and promontories, and adjacent lands. The pro- 
visions are very good, so are the fruits, which are quite 
neglected, though vines sprout up of themselves to an ex- 
traordinary size, and seem as natural to this soil as to 
any I ever saw. The town of Newport contains about 
six thousand souls, and is the most thriving place in all 
America for bigness. It is very pretty, and pleasantly 
situated, I was never more agreeably surprised than at 
the first sight of the town and harbor." 



Soon after his arrival, the Dean purcliased a 
country seat and farm about three miles from 
Newport, and there erected a house which lie 
named Whitehall. He was admitted a freeman 
of the Colony, at tlie General Assembly, in May, 
1729. He resided at Newport about two years 
and a half, and often preached at Trinity Church. 
Though he was obliged to return to Europe with- 
out ellecting his original design, yet his visit was 
of great utility in imparting an impulse to the lite- 
ratiure of our country, particularly in Rhode-Island, 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 33 

and Connecticut. During his residence on the 
Island of Rhode-Island, he meditated and com- 
posed his AlcipIu'OHj or Minute Philosopher, and 
tradition says, principally at a place about half a 
mile southerly from Whitehall. There, in the most 
elevated part of the Hanging Rocks, (so called,) 
he found a natural alcove, roofed and open to the 
south, commanding at once a beautiful view of the 
ocean and the circumjacent islands. This place is 
said to have been his favorite retreat. His Minute 
Philosopher was published in London, in 1732, 
shortly after his return. This acute and ingenious 
defence of the Christian religion, is written in a 
series of dialogues after the model of Plato. It 
contains many allusions to the scenery about his 
residence on Rhode-Island. In the introduction, 
he alludes, with the resignation of a Christian phi- 
losopher, to the miscarriage of his plan in founding 
a College. He says : 

'' I flattered myself, Theages, that before this time I 
might have been able to have sent you an agreeable ac- 
count of the success of the affair that brought me into this 
remote corner of the country. But instead of this, 1 
should now give the detail of the miscarriage, if I did not 
choose to entertain you with some incidents which have 
helped to make me easy under the circumstance which I 
could neither obviate nor foresee. Events are not al- 
ways in our power, but it always is to make a good use of 
the very worst. And I must needs own, the course and 
event of this affair gave me opportunity for reflections 
that make me some amends for a great loss of time, pains 
5 



34 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

and expense. For several months past, I enjoyed much 
liberty and leisure in this distant retreat." 

To Bishop Berkeley, the literary institutions of 
New-England are much indebted. He visited 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1731, and during his 
residence at Newport, augmented the library of 
Harvard College by valuable donations of the 
Latin and Greek classics. To Yale College, he 
presented eight hundred and eighty volumes, and, 
on his departure from Newport, he gave the White- 
hall estate, consisting of his mansion and one hun- 
dred acres of land, for three scholarships in Latin 
and Greek. After his return to England, in 1733, 
he sent a magnificent organ, as a donation to 
Trinity Church, in Newport, which is still in con- 
stant use, and bears an inscription, which per- 
petuates the generosity of the donor. 

Parliament having failed to afford him that as- 
sistance for the establishment of a College, which 
had been promised, his project miscarried. After 
he had spent more than seven years of the prime 
of his life, and a large part of his private fortune 
in endeavors to accomplish it, he returned to 
England. 



'&' 



In 1734, he was raised to the See of Cloyne, and, 
twelve years after, he refused the offer from lord 
Chesterfield of a translation to the Bishopric of 
Clogher. In the discharge of his high office, his gen- 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 35 

erosity was conspicuous in the sacrifices he made, 
as well as in the tokens of his beneficence which 
he scattered around him. When, in consequence 
of the infirmities of age, he was unable to at- 
tend to his episcopal duties, he was unwilling to 
receive the emoluments of his Bishopric, and gen- 
erously signed over the demense lands to be renew- 
ed at a yearly rent of two hundred pounds sterling, 
which sum, by his orders, was distributed among 
the poor. In 1752, he retired to Oxford, that he 
might pass the remainder of his days in learned 
leisure, and for the purpose of superintending the 
education of his son. 

This excellent man died suddenly and calmly 
at Oxford, January 14, 1753, in the seventy-third 
year of his age. 

Berkeley was endued with great powers of mind, 
and possessed of vast stores ol' erudition. His 
intellectual and moral qualities conspired to form 
in him a character of high and attractive excel- 
lence. The learned Bishop Atterbury said of him : 
'' So much understanding, so much knowledge, so 
much innocence, and such humility, I did not think 
had been the portion of any but angels, until I saw 
this gentleman." Pope, who, as a friend, knew him 
well, describes him as possessed of " every virtue 
under Heaven." 



36 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

The following verses were written by Bishop 
Berkeley, during his residence in Newport. 

" On the prospect of planting Arts and Learning in 
America. 
" The muse, disgusted at an age and clime, 

Barren of every glorious theme, 
In distant lands now waits a better time. 
Producing subjects worthy fame : 

" In happy climes, where from the genial sun 
And virgin earth fresh scenes ensue. 

The force of art by nature seems outdone. 
And fancied beauties by the true : 

" In happy climes, the seat of innocence. 
Where nature guides and virtue rules. 

Where men shall not impose for truth emd sense 
The pedantry of courts and schools : 

" There shall be sung another golden age. 

The rise of empire and of arts, 
The good and great inspiring epic rage, 

The wisest heads and noblest hearts. 

" Not such as Europe breeds in her decay ; 

Such as she bred when fresh and young. 
When heavenly flame did animate the clay 

By future ages shall be sung." 

" Westward the course of empire takes its way : 

The four first acts ah'eady past, 
A Jiftfi shall close the drama with the day ; 

Time's noblest offspring is the last." 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 37 

Note D— p. 20. 
The following extract is from the letter sent by 
the First Baptist Church in Boston, to the Con- 
gregational Church in Cambridge, when Mr. Condy 
was to be ordained. 

" To the Church of Christ in Cambridge, imder the 
pastoral care of the Rev. Mr. Nathaniel Appleton. 

^^ Honored and beloved in the Lord: 

" This is to request you to send your Reverend Elders 
and Messengers to assist in the ordination of our elected 
Pastor, on the second Wednesday in February next. A 
request of the like tenor with this we have made to the 
churches in Boston, under the care of the Rev. Messrs. 
Webster and Gray, and Mr. Wilham Hooper. 

" Honored and beloved, we heartily wish you all spir- 
itual blessings in Christ Jesus, the glorious head of the 
Church. We are, in behalf and by order of the Church, 
your affectionate brethren in the Gospel. 

"SHEM DROWNE, Deacon. 

"JOHN CALLENDER,* 

"JAMES BOUND, 

"BENJ. LANDON, 

"JOHN PROCTOR." 

* This gentleman was tlic father of tlie subject of this Memoir. 



38 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

The following is an extract from the manuscript 
journal of Rev. John Comer, A. B., who was the 
predecessor of Rev. John Callender in the pastoral 
care of the first Baptist Church in Newport. 

"January 31, 1725. This day I was baptised by the 
Rev. Mr. Elisha Callender, and was admitted into full 
communion with the Baptist Church in Boston, having 
before waited on the Rev. Mr. Appleton, of Cambridge, 
and discoursed with him on the point of baptism, together 
with my resolution — upon which he signified I might, 
notwithstanding, maintain my communion in his church: 
by which I disco veered the candor and catholic temper of 
his spirit." 

Mr. Comer's manuscript journal, two volumes 
folio, is now deposited in the cabinet of the Rhode- 
Island Historical Society. It is a curious produc- 
tion, giving an account of all the remarkable events 
with which he became acquainted, interspersed 
with prayers, religious reflections, &c. Mr. Comer 
had formed the design of writing the history of the 
American Baptists, and had collected many useful 
materials for this purpose, which were of great ad- 
vantage to Edwards, Backus, and Benedict in their 
histories. For an account of this excellent man, 
we refer the reader to Backus, vol. 2, p. 66, 111 ; 
Benedict, vol. 1, p. 497. 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 39 

Note E.— p. 22 
Biographical notice of Rev. JVathaniel Clap. 
The Rev. Nathaniel Clap, minister of the first 
Congregational Church in Newport, Rhode-Island, 
was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts, January, 
1G68. He was a descendant from one of the first 
planters in Massachusetts. He was graduated at 
Harvard College, in 1690, and while he was young 
liis praise was in the churches, for his piety, learn- 
ing, and pulpit talents. He began to preach in 
Newport, 1695, and in the midst of many dis- 
couragements, continued his labors till a church 
was formed, of which he was ordained pastor, No- 
vember 3, 1720. He was minister in Newport near 
fifty years, and continued his pastoral care over 
the first Congregational Church till his death. 
When Mr. Whitefield arrived at Newport from 
Charleston, in the year 1740, he called upon Mr. 
Clap, and he speaks of him as the most venerable 
man he ever beheld. " He looked," says Mr. 
Whitefield, " like a good old puritan, and gave me 
an idea of what stamp those men were, who first 
settled New-England. His countenance was very 
heavenly, and he prayed most aflfectionately for a 
blessing on my coming to Rhode-Island. I could 
not but think, that I was sitting by one of the 
patriarchs." — Mliitcficld^s Journal. 

Dean Berkeley was intimate with Mr. Clap, and 
often spoke of his good deeds and exemplary 



40 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

character. He said, "Before I s^w father Clap, I 
thought the Bisliop of Rome had the most grave 
aspect of any man I ever saw, but really the min- 
ister of Newport has the most venerable appear- 
ance." Mr. Clap died October 30, 1745, in the 
seventy-eighth year of his age. 



Note F— p. 23. 

Mary Callender, daughter of the subject of this 
Memoir, was born in Newport, Dec. 12, 1731. She 
was about sixteen years of age when her father 
died ; and soon after his decease, at the request of 
his friends, Joseph Jacob and wife, she became an 
inmate in their family. At the age of twenty, she 
became a member of the first Baptist Church, of 
which her flither had been pastor. In the year 
1762, she united with the Society of Friends, and 
in the 37th year of her age she became a preacher 
in that denomination. November 11th, 1778, she 
was married in Providence to Joseph Mitchell, a 
worthy member of the Society of Friends. In 
1787, she removed to Nantucket. She quietly de- 
parted this life June 26, 1810, in the 78th year of 
her age. A short account of her life has been pub- 
lished, written by herself, with selections from 
some of her writings. She sustained, during the 
whole of her life, a most exemplary Christian char- 
acter, and w^as held in great esteem by the Society 
of Friends, and by all who had the pleasure of her 
acquaintance. 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 41 

In her account of her life, Mary Mitchell fre- 
([uently speaks in the most affectionate terms of 
her parents. In page 9, she says : 

" My father was much beloved and respected by people 
of all ranks that were acquainted with him ; he being a 
person of an enlarged mind, embraced the virtuous of every 
denomination, and lived in strict friendship with many 
worthy persons, from whom he differed in some religious 
sentiments. Among this number was Joseph Jacob and 
his truly virtuous wife ; these were sensible of his worth ; 
and my dear father's removal by death was justly es- 
teemed by many, a public loss, he possessing qualifica- 
tions for much usefulness. My dear mother was a vir- 
tuous woman, a pattern of patience, humility and resig- 
nation to the dispensations of Providence. She, with 
my dear father, experienced many seasons of adversity j 
she survived him many years, and died in sweet com- 
posure of mind, and no doubt is now at rest with the 
Lord." 

The following account of Mary Callender is ex- 
tracted from a letter which the editor has received 
from the learned Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, late 
Professor in Harvard University, <fec. <fec. 

" The sensible and pious Mary Callender, who be- 
came a public preacher in the Society of Friends, had the 
meek and quiet spirit of her father. Not long after her 
father's death, this offspring of a regularly ordained min- 
ister of the gospel, united herself with that religious So- 
ciety. In Newport, there was a worthy, opulent, and very 
respectable member of that denomination of Christians, 
6 



42 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

named Joseph Jacob, advanced in life, who had four or 
five neat and well behaved negro domestics, bound to- 
gether by duty, respect and gratitude ; a pleasant picture 
of patriarchal government, without fear and without re- 
proach. But being all blacks, yet natives, it left the 
master and his wife alone in the parlor and garden ; when 
he invited Mary Callender to become their parlor com- 
panion, and she did so to mutual satisfaction, exhibiting 
a respectable picture of father and daughter, waited on 
by black female slaves, who wore the plain, neat garb of 
Q-uakers. The family was singular, and every thing 
very decorous, relatively respectable, and marked by 
humble wisdom. To see the negro women, with their 
black hoods and blue aprons, walking at a respectful dis- 
tance behind their master to meeting, was not an un- 
pleasant sight in those days. Friend Jacob himself was 
somewhat unique in his habits and manners. Easy in his 
circumstances, and intellectual in his tastes, he filled up 
his liberal leisure in watching the wind, his clock and his 
weather glasses. At that day, he was the only person on 
Rhode-Island who owned a thermometer. When very 
cold, or very warm, he was the oracle of the atmosphere, 
and of time-pieces ; for every one had recourse to him as 
the prime regulator ; and when passing along to meeting 
with his uniform step, people in his way consulted their 
clocks and watches, without speaking to him. 

" This steady follower of George Fox, though a grave 
and rather silent man, had, it is presumed, no small grati- 
fication in being if not Sir Oracle, at least Friend Ora- 
cle. His house was the pattern of neatness, order and 
quiet, and a very proper residence for the nun-like Mary 
Callender ; and in this pleasant greenhouse grew up and 
prospered that fair lily of Q,uakerism, who sprang origin- 



NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 43 

ally from a Baptist stock. She was not a cactus grandi- 
Jlorus, but the modest lily of the valley, with qualities of 
the sensitive plant ; and yet she thought it her duty to 
proclaim, in the most public parts of the city of Newport, 
a mission from heaven ! I myself heard her in the open 
streets, call the people to repentance — exclaiming, ''Re- 
pent — repent! for the kingdom of heaven is at handP^ 
She was accompanied by a grave man and woman, se- 
lected, if I mistake not, by the monthly meeting or elders. 
But she never raised a crowd of people around her. They 
rather shut their doors and windows, and considered it an 
hallucination, than a commission from heaven. They 
were pained, and lamented to see a tall, slender, well- 
looking woman, of middle age and respectable connec- 
tions, suflering under a mistake. Some of the common 
people remarked, that had the commission come from 
heaven, the Lord would have given her a stronger voice 
and a bolder manner. I myself thought it a natural idea. 
Her second father by adoption, the wise and wary Joseph 
Jacob, had died a few years before, and left her alone, 
with no other guide than her own enthusiastic feelings 
operating on a feeble frame, and one would have supposed 
a timid disposition ; for there was no wildness in her 
manner, or any thing like rant in her utterance. I have 
conjectured that thiS' was the fine feeling of her pious 
father, divested of his correct judgment ; who, had he 
lived, might have said to her, " Mary ! be not righteous 
overmuch, neither be thou overwisc ; for why shouldst 
thou destroy thyself?" 

" Does this character of the daughter throw any light on 
that of the father ? My esteemed friend, Moses Brown, 
that chronicle of truth, must have known her and her 
friend Jacob. If it were judicious to give the characters 



44 NOTES TO THE MEMOIR. 

of Milton's two daughters, it cannot be too much out of 
the way to mention these particulars of the offspring of 
the Rev. John Callender.* 

" Henry Collins, a wealthy merchant and a man of 
taste, the Lorenzo de Medicis of RJiode-Island, caused a 
painting to be made of parson Callender, as well as some 
other divines, as Hitchcock, Clap, and Dean Berkeley. 1 
conjecture that the portrait you mention is the very one 
that I often admired in the Collins collection."! 

* The venerable Moses Brown died September G, 1836, aged ninety- 
seven years, eleven months and fourteen days. He was a liberal bene- 
factor of Brown University, of the Seminary belonging to the Friends, 
erected in Providence in 1818, and of various benevolent institutions. 
He was a man of vigorous intellect, of sterling integrity, of simple 
manners, and of unfeigned piety. In his old age he enjoyed an unusual 
share of health, and the powers of liis mind were very little impaired. 
At the time of his decease he was one of the Vice Presidents of the 
Rhode-Island Historical Socict}'. 

\ This fine original portrait, supposed to have been executed by Smi- 
bert, is now in the possession of Henry Bull, Esq., of Newport. 



CALLENDER'S 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE 



Note. — In order to preserve entire the original form of 
Mr. Callender's Historical Discourse, the notes of the 
edition are all of them placed in the Appendix, except two 
or three which are intended to correct errors, into which 
the author had fallen with regard to dates, &c. The 
title page and dedication of the former edition are also 
retained. 



AN 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 



ON THE 

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS 

OF THE COLONY OF 

RHODE-ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, 

IN NEW-ENGLAND, IN AMERICA, 

FROM THE FIRST SETTLEMENT, 1638, TO THE 

END OF THE FIRST CENTURY. 



BY JOHN CALLENDER, A. M. 



Joshua, xxii. 22. — The Lord God of Gods, the Lord God of Gods, he 
knoweth, and Israel shall know, if it be in rebellion, or in transgress- 
ion against the Lord. 

Psalms, cxlv. 4. — One generation shall praise thy name to another, and 
shall declare thy mighty acta. 



BOSTON: 

Printed and sold by S. Kneeland and T. Green, 
in dueen-Street. — mdccxxxix. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE HONORABLE 

WILLIAM CODDINGTON, ESQ,. 

Sir — It is not barely to give you a public testi- 
mony of my gratitude for many per.sonal favors, 
nor yet of that esteem and respect which all men 
bear you, for your singular equity and benevolence, 
not only in private life, but in all the various 
offices, in which you have served and adorned your 
country ; that I prefix your name to these papers : 
but because an attempt to recover some account 
of this happy Island, and to make a religious im- 
provement of the merciful providences of God 
towards it, is justly due to the lineal representative 
of that worthy gentleman, who was the great in- 
strument of its original settlement. 

Your honored grandfather, William Coddington, 
Esq., was chosen in England to be an Assistant of 
tlie Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, A. D. 1629, 
and in 1630 came over to New-England with the 



50 DEDICATION. 

Governor and the Charter, ttc, after which he was 
several times rechosen to that honorable and im- 
portant office. He was for some time treasurer of 
the Colony. He was with the chiefest in all public 
charges, " and a principal merchant in Boston," 
where he built the first brick house. 

In the year 1637, when the contentions ran so 
iiigh in the country, he was grieved at the pro- 
ceedings of the Court against Mr. Wheelwright 
and others. And when he found that liis opposition 
to those measures was ineffectual, he entered his 
protest, " that his dissent might appear to succeed- 
ing times;" and though he was in the fairest way 
to be great, in tlie MassacJmsetts, as to outward 
things, yet he voluntarily quitted his advantageous 
situation at Boston, his large property and his im- 
provements at Braintrcc, for peace sake, and that 
he might befriend, protect, and assist the pious 
people, who Avere meditating a removal from that 
Colony, on account of their religious differences. 

Here, wlien the people first incorporated them- 
selves a body politic on this Island, they chose him 
to be tlieir judge or chief ruler, and continued to 
elect him annually lo be Iheir Governor for seven 



DEDICATION. 51 

years together, till the Patent took place, and the 
Island was incorporated with Providence Planta- 
tions. 

In the year 1647, he assisted in forming the body 
of laws, which has been tlie basis of our constitu- 
tion and government ever since; and the next 
year being chosen Governor of the Colony, de- 
clined the office. 

In 1651, he had a commission from the siq^reme 
authority then in England., to be Governor of the 
Island, pursuant to a power reserved in the Patent: 
but the people being jealous " the commission might 
affect their lands and liberties as secured to them 
by the Patent," he readily laid it doAvn on the first 
notice from England that he might do so; and for 
their further satisfaction and contentment, he, by 
a writing under his hand, obliged himself to make 
a formal surrender of all right and title to any of 
tlie lands, more than his proportion in common 
with the other inhabitants, wheiiever it should be 
demanded. 

After that, he seems to have retired much from 
public business, (ill toward the latter end of his 
days, whc!! he was ac^ain divers times prevailed 



52 DEDICATION. 

with to take the government upon him ; as he did 
particularly 1678, when he died November 1, in 
the seventy-eighth year of his age, a ^ood man, 
full of days. Thus, after he had the honor to be 
the first judge and Governor of this Island, " after 
he had spent much of his estate and the prime of 
his life in propagating plantations," he died Gov- 
ernor of the Colony — in promoting the welfare and 
the prosperity of the little commonwealth, which 
he had in a manner founded. 

If there was any opposition at any time to any 
of his measures, or if he met with any ungrateful 
returns from any he had served, it was no more 
than what several of the other first excellent Gov- 
ernors of the other JVew English colonies met with, 
from a people made froward by the circumstances 
of a wilderness, and over-jealous of their privileges. 
A free people will always be jealous of their privi- 
leges, and history abounds with examples of the 
mistakes and ingratitude occasioned by that 
jealousy. 

If the following Discourse has done any justice 
to the memory and character of the pious people 
who first settled this Colony, or if it has any ten- 
dency to promote the true original ends of this* 



DEDICATION. 53 

Plantation, I am sure of your patronage. And as 
to what relates to some articles, different from 
your judgment and practice in religious matters, 
the generosity and candor you inherit from your 
great ancestors, will easily bear with me, endeavor- 
ing to vindicate my own opinions on such an oc- 
casion. 

I hope there are few or no errors in the matters 
of fact related, or the dates that are assigned ; to 
prevent any mistakes, I have carefully reviewed 
the public records, and my other materials ; this 
review has brought to my knowledge or remem- 
brance, many things that were not mentioned in 
the pulpit, which however it seemed ought not ta 
be omitted. 

I designed to have put all the additions and en- 
largements, in the form of notes, for my own ease, 
but have been persuaded to weave as many of 
them as were proper into the body of the Discourse^ 
as what is generally most pleasing to the reader. 
I am very sensible, several things will be thought 
too minute or personal by strangers, but the de- 
scendants of the persons concerned, and the in- 
habitants of the Colony, will readily pardon me. 



54 DEDICATION, 

And some other things which are familiarly known 
among ourselves, will be necessary to others. 

It is much to be lamented that many valuable 
manuscripts of some of the first settlers here, are 
so soon embezzled and lost. And it is much to be 
wished, that some gentlemen of ingenuity and 
leisure, would take pains to collect as many of 
these old papers as can be found dispersed about. 
I am apt to think, that these, with the public 
records, would furnish materials for a just history 
of the Colony. 

What is here presented to your view, will by no 
means supersede such a design ; I rather hope it 
will stimulate gentlemen in every part of the 
Colony, to make a search after such papers, and 
more especially noio^ while the JVeic-Bngkmd 
Chronology is in hand, composing by a gentleman, 
above all exceptions universally acknowledged the 
best versed in the history of the country, and the 
most capable to give the world a just and clear idea 
of all our civil and religious affairs, and who is al- 
ready so well furnished with materials from every 
other part of the country. 



DEDICATION. 55 

That the Most High woukl be pleased to bless 
you with all the blessings of grace and providence, 
together with your pious lady and numerous off- 
spring, is the prayer of 

Your Honor's most obliged 

humble servant, 

JOHN CALLENDER. 
Newport, on Rhode-Island, Oct. 27, 1738. 



AN HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, Xc 



PSALMS, LXXVIl. 10, 11, 12. 

I will remember the years of the right hand of the 
Most High. I will remember the work of the Lord, 
surely I will remember thy wonders of old, I will medi- 
tate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. 

As it is now more than a century, since the 
lands within the present patent, or charter of this 
Colony, began to be settled by Englishmen, and 
inhabited by Christians, our ancestors ; and as this 
day is just an hundred years since the Indian Sa- 
chems, jMlantonomy* and the ancient Canonicas, 
his uncle and guardian, signed the grant of this 
Island, to Mr. Coddington and his friends united 
with him; and as Mr. John Clark, the founder 
under God, and the first elder of this Church, and 
its liberal benefactor, was a principal instrument 
in negotiating the purchase and settlement of the 

*The name of this Sachem is usually spelt in the 
printed books, Miantonimoh, but in all the manuscripts, 
Myantonomy, or Miantonomc, or Miantonomu, and the 
name is so pronounced by the people who take the sound 
by tradition, and not from the books, with the accent on 
the last syllable but one. 
9 



58 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Island, as he was likewise afterwai'd, in obtainiiii^ 
and maintaining the old patent, and procuring the 
present charter ; I thought it would be but proper 
to defer our Lecture, which in course fell out on 
yesterday, to this time ; and now I propose to lay 
before you, such an account as I have been able to 
collect, of the occasion and the manner of our first 
settlement, together with a short view of the civil 
and religious history, and the present state of the 
Colony. And then to entertain you with such 
reflections as the subject will suggest, and such 
remarks as may serve to dispose and assist us, to 
a religious improvement of those memorable occur- 
rences. 

I confess the account I have been able to collect 
is very lame and imperfect, and for that reason I 
should have laid aside the design, if I had not 
thought it in reality a duty, to recollect and review 
so much as we can of the merciful providence of 
God, in the settling and preserving this Colony; 
and that we ought to remember the years of the 
right hand of the IMost High, the works of the 
Lord, and the wonders of old, to meditate of his 
work, and talk of his doings. 

And here, in order to lay before you some ac- 
count of the occasion and manner of our first set- 
tlement, and the conduct of Divine Providence 
towards us ever since, it may be proper, previously 
to mention a few things relating to the settlement 
of New-England in general. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 59 

And that we may take thinp^s from the begin- 
ning, he pleased to observe that October 12, 1492,* 
this part of the world smce called America, before 
that wholly unknown to the rest, was first discovered 
by Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, in the ser- 
vice of the king of Spain. The Pope soon after, 
generously bestowed the new world on the Span- 
iards; they made many successful voyages, and 
many great conquests and settlements in the south- 
ern parts of the new found world. Their success 
and the immense riches they carried home to Eu- 
rope, did, in process of time, excite other nations to 
put in for a share with them. Among the rest the 
English (who had narrowly missed the advantages 
of the hrst discovery) besides their enterprises on 
the Spaniards, made many successive attempts to 
discover and settle in North America. 

In 1578 or 1579, there was a patent granted by 
Q^ueen Elizabeth for six years to Sir H. Gilbert, to 

* Where several writers give the same account, 'tis 
needless to quote any one in particular, as 'tis also, where 
the account is taken from a comparison of many authors, 
with one another. However, I have followed the dates 
in the New-England Chronology, where the most mate- 
rial facts are collected, and placed in the truest light, and 
the dates fixed with the greatest accuracy and exactness. 
The reader will observe many expressions marked " " ; 
these are the very words of the authorities I follow, and 
which I choose to make use of as ol\en as conveniently 
might be. 



GO HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

])lant and inliabit some nortliern parts of America, 
unpossessed by any Prince witli whom she had any 
alliance. 

March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth 2:ranted to 
Sir W. Raleigh a patent for foreign parts not pos- 
sessed by any Christian Prince. And the same 
year, he took possession of the country to tlie west- 
ward of lloanoke, and called it Virginia, in honor 
of his mistress. He sent three several colonies to 
settle in those parts, who all failed. As did Capt. 
Gosnold, in a like attempt to settle in what is since 
called New-England, which he first discovered in 
1602. And several otlier attempts met with the 
like ill success. 

April 10, 1G06, King James divided Virginia into 
two colonies, which were called South and North, 
the first between 34 and 41 degrees nortli, and the 
last between 38 and 45, and they were not to settle 
within an hundred miles of one another. By 1611, 
the Southern or London company, had made an 
efTectual settlement; while the Northern or Ply- 
mouth company were almost discouraged at their 
repeated disappointments. However, Judge Pop- 
ham, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and others, continued 
their attempts and their designs, till Divine Provi- 
dence began a settlement within their jurisdiction, 
without their knowledge or contrivance. 

It is acknowledged, on all hands, the first settle- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 61 

meiits of New-England were a consequence of tlie 
disputes whicli attended the Reformation in Eng- 
land ; and therefore we must observe, that during 
this time, viz. 1517, learning having revived all 
over Europe, the Reformation was begun by Lu- 
ther, and others in Germany, and carried on in sev- 
eral parts of Christendom, particularly in England, 
where, after a long struggle, it was was finally es- 
tablished, by act of Parliament, under Queen 
Elizabeth, who ])egan to reign November 17, 1558. 

As the whole Christian religion had been cor- 
rupted and disfigured by the inventions and im- 
positions of Popery, in a long course of time, it is 
so far from being to be wondered at, that it could 
not but be expected that many, who were justly 
and equally offended, at the horrid corruptions of 
Popery, should yet be unable entirely to agree in 
their sentiments, of what things were to be reformed, 
or how far they should carry the Reformation at 
the first. And yet this was every where a great 
and unhappy rcmora to that glorious work, and 
gave their enemies a very considerable advantage, 
which they well knew how, and failed not to im- 
prove to the utmost. 

The effects of these divisions, and the animosi- 
ties with which they were maintained, were felt in 
England, not only in the beginning of the Refor- 
mation, but after it was established, and even ever 
since to this day. Among the Reformers in (iueen 



62 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Elizabeth's reign (many of whom had been exiles in 
Queen Mary's persecution, and so had more opportu- 
nities to see and converse with the foreign Protest- 
ants) there were many who sought to carry the Re- 
formation, farther in some points than had been done 
in King Edward's time. They sought to take away 
every thing they imagined had the color of supers- 
tition, and to make the Bible their real rule in wor- 
ship and discipline, as well as in faith. These 
were presently called Puritans, as pretending to 
seek a purer church state and a farther reforma- 
tion than the other party thought Avas necessary 
or expedient. 

Those had not the same exceptions to many 
things the Puritans scrupled ; and beside, thought 
it was but good policy to make as few and as little 
changes and alterations as possible, especially in 
the ceremonies, which most powerfully affect the 
vulgar, in order to draw in the bulk of the clergy 
and the nation to favor the other alterations, which 
all of them esteemed to be of the most importance. 
And the Queen zealously espousing this party, 
turned the balance in their Ijivor; and accordingly 
for some years the whole nation, in cifcct, came to 
church, though the times were far from being set- 
tled. 

The Puritans, it seems, had few or no objections 
to the articles of faith, but they chiedy objected 
against the liturgy, the ceremonies, and the con- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 63 

stitution and discipline. But, however, they were 
not perfectly agreed among themselves; while the 
much larger part of them, fathers of those since 
called Presbyterians, generally strove to keep their 
places in the church, without conforming to some 
of the most offensive ceremonies, and by voluntary 
agreement among themselves, sought to remedy, 
and .supply what they thought was amiss or want- 
ing, in the parliamentary establishment ; others of 
them, fathers of those since called Independents 
and Congregationalists, separated wholly from the 
public worship, in the parish churches, and sought 
a thorough alteration in the whole form and con- 
stitution of the church, and to lay aside the liturgy 
and all the ceremonies together. 

Q,ueen Elizabeth kept a watchful and jealous 
eye over them all, as fearing, and being determined 
against all farther alterations in religious matters. 
And subscription and conformity, being at times 
pressed harder, as the friends to the Puritans were 
out of power, some of them, especially of those 
called Separatists, had been driven out of England, 
and at length there was a church of the indepen- 
dent scheme, formed at Amsterdam, in Holland. In 
the reign of King James, (whom the Puritans expec- 
ted to be a patron to them, as he had been educated 
in Scotland, and jiad openly censured the Church 
of England,) those things winch offended them, 
were carried with an Jiiglier hand. In the years 
1608, and 1609, several more of them in the north 



64 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

of England, removed to Holland, and a number of 
them settled at Leyden under the pastoral care ol' 
Mr. John Robinson, (afterwards the father of 
Plymouth colony,) in hopes to enjoy that liberty 
of their consciences, in a strange land, they were 
denied at home. 

Here they continued eleven or twelve years, till, 
for many reasons, they began to meditate a re- 
moval, and chose to seek an asylum somewhere in 
North America, near Hudson's river. They had a 
long and tedious treaty with the southern or Vir- 
ginia Company, who might reasonably expect 
greater sobriety, patience and industry, from a 
people of such a character, and in such circum- 
stances, and Avilo had such views and designs of 
their own, than they had found in such other people 
as they could prevail on to transport themselves 
into a wilderness. However, the factions and dis- 
turbances in the Company, and other causes, de- 
layed the affairs for some time, till 1619, in the 
fall, they obtained a Patent for the land, but they 
could not obtain a legal assurance of the liberty of 
their consciences. However, they determined at 
length to remove, depending on some general 
promises of connivance, if they behaved themselves 
peaceably, and hoping that the distance and re- 
moteness of the place, as well as the public service 
they should do the King and Kingdom, would pre- 
vent their being disturbed. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 65 

After encountering many difficulties and dis- 
couragements, from tlie nature and circumstances 
of their voyage, and from the treachery of some of 
the undertakers, they arrived at Cape Cod, on the 
9th of November, 1620. Here they found their 
Patent useless, this place being within the bounds 
of the NcAV-England or Plymouth Company ; and 
yet necessity obliged them to set down thereabout. 
They did, therefore, two days after, incorporate 
themselves a body politic, and having made such a 
search of the adjacent country as their circum- 
stances would allow, at that time of the year, they 
began their settlement, about Christmas, at a place 
called by the Indians, Patuxet ; by them named 
New Plymouth. Infinite, almost, were the hard- 
ships and distresses of the ensuing winter, in which 
near half the Company died for want of necessaries. 
However, through the merciful providence of God, 
they maintained their ground, and through many 
difficulties, which they overcame by patience and 
the divine blessing, they increased to three hundred 
souls in nine years after, when they obtained a 
Patent from the New-England Company, the 13tli 
of January, 1629—30. 

In that period, there had been many successless 
attempts to make settlements in New-England, for 
the sake of trade and liusbandry only, as if Divine 
Providence had reserved the place for those who 
soon after took possession of it. The success of 

9 



66 HISTORICAI. DISCOURSE.' 

tlie Plymouth planters be^jjaii to excite the Puri- 
tans, all over England, to meditate a removal to 
those parts of the world, in order to enjoy the liberty 
of worshipping God according to their consciences. 
There was no ground at all left them to hope for 
any condescension or indulgence to their scruples, 
but uniformity was pressed with harder measures 
than ever. A great part of the nation was alarmed 
with the apprehensions of Arminianism, and that 
even Popery itself was approaching ; yea, the civil 
affairs, and the peace of the nation, began to be 
embroiled and interrupted by the false politics and 
bad counsels of the unhappy Prince on the throne ; 
so that New-England began to be looked on by 
them as a place of refuge ; and it is said, that some 
who proved principal actors in the changes and 
events that followed, had even determined to 
transport themselves here, had they not been un- 
accountably restrained by authority. This is cer- 
tain, the same principles in some persons, which 
had rendered their stay uneasy at home, and which 
at first refused them a legal toleration in the wilds 
of America, made their leaving the Kingdom as 
difficult as possible. Whereas, could good policy 
have prevailed over bigotry, it would have ap- 
peared a good expedient for them, thus to clear the 
Kingdom of the disaffected and nonconformists, 
and with them make such an effectual plantation, 
as promised a great addition to the trade and riches, 
and power of the Kingdom, and greatly enlarged 
its territory 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 67 

Mr. White, of Dorchester, tlie father of the Mas- 
sachusetts Colony, encouraged Mr. R. Conant, who 
had, on disgust, removed Ironi Plymouth to Nan- 
tasket, to continue in the country, with the promise 
of men, and all things necessary for another plan- 
tation. Whereupon, this gentleman, 1625, re- 
moved to Cape Ann, and the next year to Naum- 
keak, since called Salem. March 19, 1627 — 8, the 
Council for New-England signed the Massachu- 
setts Patent, and March 4, 1628 — 9, the King con- 
lirms it by Ca harter which included liberty of 
conscience. The nonconformists, so called, are 
busily employed about their intended expedition. 
In 1628, they send Mr. Endicot, with some people, 
to begin and prepare the way (or them, and the 
next year they send Mr. Higginson and many more; 
and, 1630, Governor Winthorp, Deputy Governor 
Dudley, with tlie Assistants, the Charter, and fifteen 
hundred people, and all necessaries, came over and 
made effectual settlements at Charlestown, Water- 
town, Dorchester, Boston, etc.; and more of their 
friends coming over to them, in the following years, 
the new settlements increased and prospered, not- 
withstanding the many diliiculties and hardships 
which must necessarily attend the planting such 
a remote wilderness. 

As the country was more fully discovered, the 
lands on Connecticut river grew so famous for their 
fruitfulness, and convenience to keej) cattle, that 
great numbers from New-Town. Dorchester, &c., 



68 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

removed there, under the conduct of Mr. Hains, 
Mr. Hopkins, Mr. Ludlow, and Mr. Hooker, <fcc., 
and through inexpressible hardships, through 
famine, and weariness, and perils of the enemy, 
they at length settled at Hartford, 1635 and 1636, 
which was the beginning of Connecticut colony ; 
and, in 1637, New-Haven colony was begun by a 
people directly from England, under the leading 
of Mr. Eaton, and Mr. Davenport, <fec. Thus the 
four grand colonies of New-England were begun in 
a few years, and some faint attempts likewise made 
to settle in the eastward parts, in the province of 
Maine, &c.., for the sake of trade and fishery, and 
by some of the people who afterwards came here. 
Which brings me to the more immediate occasion 
of the settlement of this Colony, and the manner 
in which it was brought about and accomplished. 
It is allowed, by all sides, the religious differences 
among the first settlers of the Massachusetts 
Colony, gave rise to this Colony, and the settling of 
this Island. 

Almost all the first settlers of New-England 
were Puritans. The people at Plymouth were 
generally of that sort called Separatists, and those 
of Boston generally had lived in the communion of 
the Church of England, though they scrupled con- 
forming to some of the ceremonies. But these 
being come to so great a distance from the Bishops' 
power, could well enough agree in the same forms 
of worship, and method of discipline with the church 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 69 

at Plymouth, and a mixed form of church govern- 
ment was generally set up. Though they had 
seemed well enough united, by the common zeal 
against the ceremonies, yet now they were removed 
from the ecclesiastical courts, with a patent which 
gave them liberty of conscience, a variety of opin- 
ions as to several points, before not so much re- 
garded, and perhaps not thought of, now began to 
be visible, and operate with considerable effects. 
It is no wonder such differences in opinion arose 
among them, as had been the case before among 
the Protestants in general. It was the avowed 
opinion of some among them of chiefest note and 
authority, (Mr. Hooker,) "that there were two great 
reserves for inquiry in that age of the world : first, 
wherein the spiritual rule of our Lord's kingdom 
doth consist, and after what manner it is revealed, 
managed and maintained in the souls of his people; 
the second, after what order the government of 
our Lord's kingdom is to be externally managed 
and maintained in his church." — Magnalia B. 3. 
p. 66. 

Notwithstanding which, the chief leaders, and 
the major part of the people, soon discovered them- 
selves as fond of uniformity, and as loath to allow 
liberty of conscience to such as differed from them- 
selves, as those from Whose power they had lied. 
Notwithstanding all their sufferings and complaints 
in England, they seemed incapable of mutual for- 
bearance ; perhaps they were afraid of provoking 



70 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

tlie higher powers at home, if they countenanced 
other sects ; and perhaps those who differed from 
them took the more freedom, in venting and pres- 
sing their peculiar opinions, from the safety and 
protection they expected, under a charter that had 
granted liberty of conscience. 

In reality, the true grounds of liberty of con- 
science were not then known, or embraced by any 
sect or party of Christians ; all parties seemed to 
think that as they only were in the possession of 
the truth, so they alone had a right to restrain, and 
crush all other opinions, which they respectively 
called error and heresy, where they were the most 
numerous and jjowerful ; and in other places they 
pleaded a title to liberty and freedom of their con- 
sciences. And yet, at the same time, all would dis- 
claim persecution for conscience sake, which has 
something in it so unjust and absurd, so cruel and 
impious, that all men are ashamed of the least im- 
putation of it. A pretence of the public peace, the 
preservation of the Church of Christ from infection, 
and the obstinacy of the heretics, are always made 
use of, to excuse and justify that, which, stripped of 
all disguises, and called by its true name, the light 
of nature, and the laws of Christ Jesus condemn 
and forbid, in the most plain and solemn manner. 
Mr. 11. Williams and Mr. J. Clark, two fathers of 
this Colony, appear among the first who publicly 
avowed that Jesus Christ is king in his own king- 
dom, and that no others had authoritv over his 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 71 

subjects, in the afTairs of conscience and eternal 
salvation. So that it was not singular or peculiar 
in those people at the Massachusetts, to think 
themselves bound in conscience to use the sword 
of the civil magistrate to open the understandings 
of heretics, or cut them off from the State, that 
they might not infect the church or injure the 
public peace. These were not the only people 
who thought they were doing God good service, 
when smiting their brethren and fellow-servants. 
All other Christian sects acted generally, as if they 
thought this was the very best service they could 
do to God, and the most effectual way to promote 
the gospel of peace, and prove themselves the true 
and genuine disciples of Jesus Christ — of Jesus 
Christ, Avho hath declared, his kingdom was not of 
this world, who had commanded his disciples to call 
no man master on earth, who had forbidden them 
to exercise lordship over each other's consciences, 
who had required them to let the tares grow witli 
the wheat till the harvest, and who had, in fine, 
given mutual love, peace, long-suffering, and kind- 
ness, as the badge and mark of his religion. 

Mr. Roger Williams, a minister, wiio came over 
to Salem, 1630, had, on a disgust, removed to 
Plymouth, where he was an assistant to their min- 
ister, Mr. Smith, for two years. And being dis- 
gusted likewise at Plymouth, returned back to Sa- 
lem, where he was chosen by the people to succeed 
Mr. Skelton, in 1G31. The magistrates opposed 



72 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

his settlement there, as they had done before. 
They made great objections to his principles, and 
it is said some wordly things helped to increase 
the animosities that soon prevailed against him ; 
though Mr. Williams appears, by the whole course 
and tenor of his life and conduct here, to have been 
one of the most disinterested men that ever lived, 
a most pious and heavenly minded soul. He was 
charged with holding it " unlawful for an unre- 
generate man to pray, or a regenerate man to pray 
with him ;" " that it Avas unlawful for the magis- 
trate to meddle with the breaches of the first table;" 
and that he insisted on an unlimited toleration, or 
liberty of conscience ; from whence they inferred 
him an advocate for licentiousness, which the good 
man's soul abhorred, " and ever disclaimed." How- 
ever, on these accounts, and for teaching the Patent 
was sinful, (in what sense and how truly is very 
obvious,) for opposing the oath of fidelity, (not out 
of disloyalty to the King, but on account of the 
nature of an oath, which he thought, as a sacred 
thing, ought not to be forced on all men promis- 
cuously, whether in a state of grace or nature,) 
" and for separating from, and renouncing com- 
munion with all the churches in the land, and 
even with his own, for not joining with him there- 
in;" — for these things, he was at length banished 
the Colony, as a disturber of the peace of the church 
and commonwealth ; and, as he says, " a bull of 
excommunication was sent after him in his ab- 
sence." 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 73 

He came away to Sccimke, since called Reho- 
both, where he procured a grant of lands, from 
Ousamequin, or Massasoiet, the chief Sachem of 
Pokanokik. But being' desired to remove from 
thence, which was within the jurisdiction of New- 
Plymouth, "he had several treaties with Myanto- 
nomy and Canonicus, the Nantygansick^ or Narra- 
ganset Sachems, in the years 1634 and 1635, who 
assured him he should not want for land for a set- 
tlement ;" Divine Providence giving him wonder- 
fully great favor in the eyes of the Sachems. And 
in the spring of the year 1634-5,* he came over the 
river to a place called by the Indians Mooshausick, 
and by him named Providence, " in a sense of God's 
merciful providence to him in his distress." And 
several of his friends following him, they planted 
there. The authority and power of Miantonomy 
awed all the Indians round, to assist and succor 
these few feeble and helpless Englishmen, thus cast 
out by their brethren, in a strange land. However, 
we must (to be impartial) own that their being 
Englishmen, was a real security and protection to 

*Here is an error of one year. It was in the spring of 
1635-6, or what would now be called 1636, that Roger 
Williams came over Seekonk River, and settled at Moo- 
shausick or Providence. The precise day or month can- 
not be ascertained. The earliest record of his being here 
is under date of July 26, 1636, O. S. See Knowles' 
Memoir of Roger Williams, p. 101 — 105. Savage's Win- 
throp, vol. 1, p. 193. — Editor. 

10 



74 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

them, unless tlie Indians had designed a general 
war. The English at Massachusetts employed Mr. 
Williams to make a league offensive and defensiv^e 
with the Narraganset Indians, in the Pequot war, 
which followed in 1(337. And the Indian Sachems, 
in one of their conhrinations of the grants of lands 
to him,* express their gratitude, " for the many 
kindnesses and services he had continually done 
for them, both with their friends at Massachusetts, 
as also at Ciunniticut, and Apaum or Plymouth." 
Mr. Williams also maintained a loving correspon- 
dence with many of his old friends to the last, and 
was esteemed and valued by many of them ; though 
he ever opposed, and that in print, once and again, 
what he called the bloody tcnent, i. e. every kind and 
degree of persecution for conscience sake. The 
hardships and distresses of these poor exiles, are 
hardly to be conceived by the present generation, 
who, through the divine goodness, have never seen 
any thing like what they cheerfully endured. But 
Divine Providence, in which they trusted, sup- 
ported them, and provided for them in their greatest 
straits, and wonderfully blessed their honest in- 
dustry, so that in a few years they had plenty of 
all tilings necessary to their subsistence and com- 
fort. 

* The said writing is dated Nanhygansick, the 24th of 
the first month, commonly called March, the second year 
of our Plantation, or planting at Mooshasick or Provi- 
dence. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. ro 

The banishment of Mr. Williams, and the volun- 
tary exile of many of his adherents, did not put an 
end to the unhappy divisions and contentions in the 
Massachusetts. Mr. Hains, the Governor, in 1635, 
did with great difficulty still and quiet the storm 
for the present, in the beginning of his administra- 
tion ; but Mr., afterwards Sir Henry Vane, jun., 
arriving at Boston that summer, and zealously 
falling in with the opinions of one party, he was by 
them persuaded to tarry there, (though designed 
for Connecticut river,) and was the next year, 
1636, chosen Governor ; and then the animosities 
and contentions were carried to a very great height; 
one side reproaching the other, as Legalists and 
under a covenant of works, &c.j and the others 
calling them Familists^ Antinomians^ iSic. The 
next year, Mr. Winthrop being rechosen Governor, 
with a great struggle, he strenuously exerted him- 
self to crush and exterminate the opinions he dis- 
approved. A synod was called for that end at 
New-Town, (since named Cambridge,) on the 30tli 
of August, where eighty erroneous opinions were 
presented, debated, and condemned ; and a court 
lield on the 2d of October following, at the same 
place, banished a few of the chief persons, among 
those who were aspersed with those errors; and 
censured several that had been the most active, 
not, it seems, for their holding those opinions, but 
for their pretended seditious carriage and be- 
iiavior; and the church at Boston likewise excom- 



76 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

municated at least one of her members, not for 
those opinions, but for denying they ever held 
them, and the behavior which these heats occa- 
sioned ; and some of these, with their friends and 
followers, came to this Island. 

Notwithstanding such a formidable number of 
errors, produced at the synod, that which these 
people differed in from the others, was chiefly this, 
as Mr. John Clark has briefly represented it, viz : 
" Touching the covenants and in point of evidenc- 
ing a man's good estate. Some (says he) pressed 
hard for the covenant of works, and for sanctifi- 
cation to be the first and chief evidence; others 
(he means himself and those who came here) 
pressed as hard for the covenant of grace, that was 
established on better promises, and for the evidence 
of the spirit, as that which is a more sure, con- 
stant, and satisfactory witness." (C/«rA:'s JVarra- 
tive Introd.) This account is agreeable to what 
there is in those books wrote on the other side, I 
have had the opportunity to consult; only they 
must be allowed to express, in their own way, their 
own sentiments of the opinions of the other side, 
and they add such shades as darken and disfigure 
the opinions of the opposite party, and set off their 
own to the best advantage. 

Dr. Mather thus describes the five questions de- 
bated between tlie synod and Mr. Cotton, (which 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 77 

were the same points about which all the divisions 
first began ;) they were " about the order of things 
in our union to our Lord Jesus Christ, about the 
influence of our faith in the application of his 
righteousness, about the use of our sanctification 
in evidencing our justification, and about the con- 
sideration of our Lord Jesus Christ, by men, yet 
under a covenant of works ; briefly, they were the 
points whereon depend the grounds of our assur- 
ance for blessedness in another and better world. 
Mag. B. 7, p. 17. 

Mr. Neal says, " The Commonwealth was almost 
torn in pieces by intestine divisions, occasioned by 
the spreading Familistical and Antinomian errors 
among the people." And from the writers before 
him, he gives the original of the controversy, to 
this purpose: " The members of the church at Bos- 
ton used to meet once a week, to repeat the ser- 
mons they heard on the Lord's Day, and to debate 
on the doctrines contained in them ; those meetings 
being peculiar to the men, some of the zealous 
women thought it might be useful to them. One 
Mrs. Hutchinson, a gentlewoman of a bold and 
masculine spirit, and a great admirer of Mr. Cotton, 
set up one at her house. The novelty of the thing, 
and the fame of the woman, quickly gained her a 
numerous audience, and from these meetings arose 
all the errors that soon after overspread the coun- 
try." He says she taught that believers in Christ 



78 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

are personally united to the spirit of God ; that 
coiniiiands to work out our salvation with fear and 
trembling, belong to none but such as are under 
the covenant of works ; that sanctification is not a 
good evidence of a good estate. She likewise set 
up immediate revelation about future events, to be 
believed as equally infallible with the scriptures ; 
and a great many other chimeras and fancies, 
which, (says he,) under a pretence of exalting the 
free grace of God, destroyed the practical part of 
religion, " and opened a door to all sorts of licen- 
tiousness-" NeaVs Hkt. C. 5, p. 166. 

I shall not enter into the merits of the cause ; 
there is neither time nor occasion for it, only, I 
must observe, how each side ascribed to the others, 
consequences they imagined followed from their 
opinions, which they did not see or own. And par- 
ticularly the people who came here, have things 
laid to their charge, which they utterly denied and 
detested equally with their antagonists. So harshly 
did their adversaries judge of them, as even to in- 
volve in their opinions, or the consequences of them, 
a denial of the resurrection of the dead, and the 
life everlasting ; Avhich totally subverts and de- 
stroys Christianity, and all religion at once, which 
necessarily implies a future state ; when yet the 
whole debate supposed tlie truth of Christianity, 
and the certainty of a future state; and the main 
question was about the method hi which they might 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 79 

best obtain an assurance of their interest in, and 
their title to, the inheritance of the saints in light. 
The very first of the eighty errors to be tried in 
the synod, doth (as I remember) charge the denial 
of the immortality of the soul, as a consequence of 
the opinion, that the faculties of the soul are pas- 
sive or quiescent in the work of conversion and re- 
generation ; when yet the synod themselves unani- 
mously believed particular election and irresistible 
grace. 

''The question was, by what evidence must a man 
proceed in taking to himself the comforts of his jus- 
tification. The bigger part of the country laid the 
first and main stress of our comfortable evidence, 
on our sanctification ; but the opinionists (says Dr. 
Mather) were for another sort of evidence, as their 
chief, namely the spirit of God, by a powerful ap- 
plication of a promise, begetting in us, and reveal- 
ing to us, a powerful assurance of our being justified." 
Mag. B. 7. p. 14. 

Now, as the Doctor adds, (even on this way of 
stating the question, or expressing the sentiments of 
those called opinionists, which they would be far 
from acquiescing in, as expressing their full and true 
opinion,) "the truth might easily have united both 
the seopinions." But as he goes on, "they carried the 
matter on to a very perilous door, opened to many 
errors and evils, yea, to threaten a subversion of the 



80 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

peaceable order in government." But they deny 
and disclaim the consequences fixed on them, and 
justify their own opinion and conduct, and charge 
the other party with as fatal and mischievous con- 
sequences, and a conduct arbitrary and oppressive. 

Besides the differences about those points, for 
which these people were charged with Antinomian- 
ism, what was called Familism Avas, perhaps, not a 
little offensive. Nay, their differences in opinion 
were worked up to almost a state quarrel at the 
last, as Arminianism had been in Holland, and 
Episcopacy was in England afterwards, and as the 
Reformation still is all over Europe. The public 
affairs of town and Colony were affected by these 
contentions, and the Governor and Assistants put in 
and out, as the one or the other side prevailed. 
The whole people unhappily run into factions and 
parties, in such a manner, as if contention and every 
evil work had not been evidences incontestible, 
that the wisdom from which they proceeded could 
not be from above. But so it is, where men differ 
about religion, their contentions are usually the 
most sharp, and carried on with the most irreligious 
heat and animosity : even though they differ about 
the smallest matters, or when, as was the case 
here, they differ from each other but in a very little. 

A great part of the body of the people, and I am 
apt to think, at the first, the majority of the town 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 81 

of Boston, Avcre of the same side the question with 
those people who afterwards came here. It is cer- 
tain, the synod and the court were both held at 
New^-Town, because of the disaffection of the people 
of Boston. The deputies of the town, at least some 
of them, openly espoused that party. The town, 
at least many of them, petitioned in their favor. 
And Mr. Cotton, the chief oracle then of both town 
and country, was confidently believed by them to 
be of the opinion they contended for. To which I 
might add the number of the people in that town, 
that were censured at the court. 

Those who came away, were most of them long 
esteemed as brethren of the church, and never 
censured by the church at all ; nay, that church 
did long retain some ^particularities, as to the 
brethren's power in church affairs, and their liberty 
to exercise their gifts in private or family meetings, 
and as to the subjects of infant baptism. It is 
certain, Mr. Wheelwright, minister to a branch of 
that church, at a place since called Braintree, 
(where the town had some lands,) was eager and 
zealous against the covenant of works ; and was 
banished by the court for what was then called se- 
dition, by the same rule which will make every dis- 
sent from, or opposition to, a majority in any re- 
ligious affairs, to be sedition, and an iniquity to be 
punished by the judge. The minor part must al- 
ways be seditious, if it be sedition to defend their 



82 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

own religious opinions, and endeavor to confute the 
contrary. This maxim, once allowed, must chain 
men down under errors and falsehoods wherever 
they prevail, and even rivet their chains. On this 
foot, what will become of the glorious martyrs for 
the gospel in the first ages of it, and the holy 
apostles, who turned the world upside down, who 
turned men from darkness to light, from the gods 
of the nations, whom they called vanities, to the 
living and true God 7 Nay, what shall we say of 
our blessed Saviour himself, who says he came to 
send division on earth 1 Hoav shall we excuse the 
Protestants, nay, how shall we justify the Puritans 
themselves, if it be seditious to oppose any religious 
opinions we think are false or erroneous, when the 
major part of the society happen to think other- 
wise? I must farther add, that however Mr. Cotton, 
at the synod, after long labor with him, disowned 
many of the opinions charged on these people, yet 
he would not condemn all the said errors in the 
gross, as the rest did, and there is some reason to 
believe that he differed from the other ministers to 
the last, at least in the manner of explaining these 
most abstruse and difficult points ; if he did not 
continue to hold, that "union to Christ was before 
faith in him, and that the habit of faith proceeded 
or followed from our justification," which it is said, 
he once seemed to hold in the synod ; and Avhich 
was in reality the root or fountain of all the 
opinions so much faulted in this people. And how- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 83 

ever Mr. Cotton has in print disowned them, and 
they are by otliers charged with falsehood and ca- 
lumny, in shrouding themselves under the authority 
of liis great name ; yet they who should be owned 
to know their own opinions, and understand their 
own expressions and designs best, always persisted 
in it, that '' Mr. Cotton was with them," or that 
they meant no more than they understood him to 
mean. 

But to return. The affair was agitated in court 
for three days; and, some changing sides in the 
court, the majority was on the side of the synod, 
and took measures effectually to support their own 
opinions. Whereupon, many of the other side de- 
termined to remove, for peace sake, and to enjoy 
the freedom of their consciences. And Mr. John 
Clark, " who made the proposal, was requested, 
with some others, to seek out a place, and, there- 
upon, by reason of the suffocating heat of the sum- 
mer before, he went north, to be somewhat cooler, 
but the winter following proving as cold, they were 
forced in the spring to make towards the south. 
So, having sought the Lord for direction, (hey 
agreed, tliat while their vessel was passing about 
a large and dangerous Cape, (Cape Cod,) they 
would cross over by land, having Long-Island and 
J)elaware Bay in their eye, for the ])lace of their 
residence. At Providence, Mr. 11. Williams lov- 
ingly entertained them, and being ct)iisulted about 



84 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

their design, readily presented two places before 
them in the Narra"anset Bay, the one on the main 
called Soic-icamcs, (the neck since called Fhebe's 
Neck, in Barrington,*) and Aquetneck, now Rhode- 
Island." And inasmuch as tliey were determined 
to go out of every otlier jurisdiction, Mr. Williams 
and Mr. Clark, attended with two other persons, 
went to Plymouth to inquire hoAv the case stood; 
they were lovingly received, and answered, that 
Soicames w^as the garden of their Patent. But 
they were advised to settle at Aquetncck^ and 
promised to be looked on as free, and to be treated 
and assisted as loving neighbors. {3Ir. J. Clark^s 
Nar) On their return, the 7th of March, 1637-8, 
the people, to the number of eighteen, t incorpo- 
rated themselves a body politic, and chose Mr. 
Coddington their leader, to be the judge or chief 



* Perhaps ISoivames is properly the name of the river, 
where the two Swansey rivers meet and run together for 
near a mile, when they empty themselves in the Narra- 
ganset Bay, or of a small Island, where those two rivers 
meet, at the bottom of New Meadow Neck, so called. 

t Their names are as follow. William Coddington, John 
Clark, William Hutchinson, John Coggeshall, AVilliam 
Aspinwall, Samuel Wilbore, John Porter, John Sanford, 
Edward Hutchinson, jnn., Thomas Savage, William 
Dyre, William Freeborne, Philip Shearman, John Walker, 
Richard Carder, William Baulston, Edward Hutchinson, 
sen., Henry Bull. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 85 

magistrate. After the same maimer, Plymouth and 
Connecticut Colonies were forced to enter into a 
voluntary agreement or covenant at the ^lrst, as hav- 
ing no legal authority amongst them; the people 
here, however, immediately sought a Patent, and 
in a foAV years obtained one. 

Mr. R. Williams was very instrumental in pro- 
curing the Island of the Indian sachems, and has 
left this account in per'jyetuam rei memoriam. " It 
was not price or money that could have purchased 
Rhode-Island, but it was obtained by love, that 
love and favor which that honored gentleman, Sir 
Henry Vane, and myself, had with the great sa- 
chem Myantonomy, about the league which I pro- 
cured, between the Massachusetts English and the 
Narragansets in the Pequot War. This I mention, 
that as the truly noble Sir Henry Vane hath been 
so great an instrument, in the hand of God, for pro- 
curing this Island of the barbarians, as also for the 
procuring and confirming the Charter, it may be 
with all thankful acknowledgments recorded, and 
remembered by us, and ours who reap the sweet 
fruits of so great benefits, and such unheard of 
liberties among us." {MS. of B. \\\) And in 
another manuscript, he tells us the Indians were 
very shy and jealous of selling the lands to any, 
and chose rather to make a grant of them to such 
as they aflccted, but, at the same time, expected 
such gratuities and rewards as made an Indian i^'fl 



86 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

often times a very dear bargain. And the Colony, 
seventy years ago, 16G6, averred, that though the 
favor Mr. Williams had with Myantonomy was the 
great means of procuring the grants of the land, 
yet the purchase had been dearer than of any lands 
in New-England ; the reason of which might he, 
partly, the English inhabited between two power- 
ful nations, the Wampanoags to the north and east, 
who had formerly possessed some part of their 
grants, before they had .surrendered it to the Nar- 
ragansets, and though they freely owned the sub- 
mission, yet it was thought best by Mr. Williams, 
to make them easy by gratuities to the sachem, his 
counsellors and followers. On the other side, the 
Narragansets were very numerous, and the natives 
inhabiting any spot the Eiiglisli sat down upon, or 
improved, were all to be bought off to their con- 
tent, and often times were to be paid over and over 
again. 

On the 24th of March, 1637-8, this day an hun- 
dred years, the Indian sachems signed the deed or 
grant of the Island Aquetneck, &c., and the En- 
glish not only honestly paid the mentioned gra- 
tuities to the sachems, but many more to the in- 
habitants to remove off, as a^^pears by the receipts 
still extant. And afterwards, at a considerable ex- 
pense, they purchased quit-claims of the heirs and 
successors of the sachems ; besides, they were 
forced to buy, over again, several parts of the first 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 87 

grant. So that they came very justly by the soil. 
And thus they describe themselves, twenty years 
after, in an address to the supreme authority in 
England, 1659 : " This poor Colony (say they) 
mostly consists of a birth and breeding of the Most 
High. We being an outcast people, formerly from 
our mother nation, in the Bishops' days, and since 
from the rest of the New-English over zealous 
Colonies. Our whole frame, being much like the 
present frame and constitution of our dearest mother 
England ; bearing with the several judgments and 
consciences of each other, in all the towns of the 
Colony ; which our neighbor Colonies do not ; and 
which is the only cause of their great offence 
against us." 

The settlement began immediately at the east- 
ward or nortliAvard end of the Island, (then called 
Pocasset,*) round the cove, and the town was laid 
out at the spring. And many of their friends fol- 
lowing them that summer, their number was so 

* AH our histories call the main land, over against the 
easterly end of the Island, where is now Tiverton, &c., 
by the name of Pocasset, and in the Indian grant to the 
first settlers, the same place seems to be called Powa- 
casick. But it is as evident in our records, that the 
eastern end of the Island is called by the same name ^ 
perhaps if I may be indulged a conjecture, the name 
properly belonged to the strait in the river or bay, at the 
eastern end of the Island, where is now Rowland's Ferry, 



88 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

considerably increased that, the next spring, some 
of the heads, with others, came to the southern or 
western end of tlie Island. The Island was divided 
into two townships, the eastern part called Ports- 
mouth, and the other Newport ; and, 1644, they 
named the Island the Isle of Rhodes^ or Rliodc- 
Island. Thus began the settlement of this Island 
and Colony, and through the good hand of our God 
upon us, we have continued to this day. God has 
blessed and prospered the people in their labors, 
and preserved to them their privileges, for the sake 
of which they followed him into the wilderness. 

And now, having seen something of the occasion 
and manner of our first settlement, let us take a 
short view of the history, and present state of the 
Colony. 

And here, in the first place, as to the inhabiting 
the other lands, and erecting the other towns now 
within our bounds. — At the same time the Island 

and the lands on both sides might be called Pocasset, till 
the English name of Portsmouth for the easterly end of 
the Island prevailed, when the Indian name Pocasset 
might become confined to the main land, which was not 
settled by the English for many years after. It is certain, 
every remarkable strait, or fall in a river, had a name 
among the Indians, as well as every point of land in the 
Bay. A knowledge of the meaning of the Indian words, 
would decide all such disputes. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 89 

was inhabited, a number of the Providence people, 
Mr. Arnold, (fcc, sat down at Patuxet, a place 
adjoining, and within their grant. They were en- 
couraged by the meadows on the river, which were 
every where an inducement to people to settle 
themselves, as they immediately furnished food for 
their cattle in the winter. 

In 1642-3, on the 12tli of January, Shaicomet^ or 
Allshaicomet^ since called Warwick, was purchased 
of Myantonomy ; Pomham, the petty sachem, con- 
senting to the sale or grant, though he afterwards 
denied it. The grant was made to Randal Holden, 
John Wickes, Samuel Gorton, John Greene, Francis 
Weston, Richard Waterman, John Warner, Richard 
Carder, Samson Shottoii, Robert Potter, William 
Woodeal. 

Here it may be proper to take some notice of the 
religious opinions of Mr. Gorton, whose Ibllowers 
were called Gortonists, or Gortonians, holding some 
things peculiar to themselves, and different from 
all the other people in New-England. 

He came to Rhode-Island in June, 1G38, where 
he tarried till 1639-40 ; then he was, on some con- 
tentions, banished the Island. Thence he went to 
Providence, where many of the people growing 
uneasy at his planting and building at Patuxet, 
and complaining to the Massachusetts Government 
12 



90 niSTOKICAL DISCOURSE. 

in 1G42, lie was summoned to appear before their 
court, which he despised. But, however, lie pur- 
chased this tract of tlie Indians, and removed there 
with his friends. But new complaints soon went 
to Boston from some of the English, and Pomliam 
and Socononoko, petty sachems of the Indians, who 
it seems were willing to take advantage of the pro- 
tection of the Massachusetts English, to revolt 
from their subjection to Myantonomy, as Massasoit 
had done before, by means of the Plymouth En- 
glish. Hereupon, Mr. Gorton and his friends being 
summoned to court, he refused to obey, as out of 
the jurisdiction, both of Boston and Plymouth, who 
both sought to stretch their bounds, to have taken 
him in. The government at length sent up a com- 
pany of armed men, who, after a fruitless treaty, 
made him and his friends prisoners, except a few 
who escaped by flight. They were carried to Bos- 
ton, and after a trial in their court, condemned to 
be confined in a severe, and even a scandalous 
manner, in several towns, for the winter, and in 
the spring banished the Colony. They came to 
Rhode-Island, and fearing to be again troubled, 
the Massachusetts seeking a Patent of some of the 
Narraganset country, they procured an actual and 
solemn submission of the sachems to King Charles, 
on the 19th of August, 1644 ; and Messrs. Gorton, 
Greene, and Holdeii, went to England and ob- 
tained an order to be sufl'ered peacealdy to possess 
their purchase. And the lands forementioned, be- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 91 

ing incorporated in the Province* of Providence 
Plantations, they returned and carried on their 
improvements, naming their purchase Warwick, in 
honor to the Earl of Warwick, who gave them his 
friendly protection. 

What Mr. Gorton's religious opinions really were, 
is now as hard to tell, as it is to understand his 
most mysterious dialect, for there are sufficient 
reasons why we ought not and cannot believe, he 
held all that are confidently fathered upon him. 
For it is certain, that, whatever impious opinions 
his adversaries imputed to him, and whatever hor- 
rid consequences they drew from the opinions he 
owned, he ascribed as bad to them, and fixed as 
dreadful consequences on their tenets; and at the 
same time, in the most solemn manner, denies and 
disavows many things they charge him with; above 
all, when he is charged with denying a future state 
and the judgment to come, both in theory and in 
practice, he peremptorily and vehemently denies 
the charge, and solemnly appeals to God, and all 
that kncAV him, of the integrity of his heart and the 
purity of his hands ; and avers, that he always joins 
eternity with religion, as most essential. And that 
the doctrine of the general Salvationists, was the 

* They sometimes called themselves the Colony, some- 
times the Province of Providence l^lantations, and some- 
times the Colony or Province. 



92 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

thing which his soul hated. {MS. letter in cms. to 
Mr. Morton! s Memorial?) 

In nn address to King Charles II., 1679, he dis- 
owns the Puritans, and most unaccountably says, 
he sucked in his peculiar tenets " from the breasts 
of his mother, the church of England." He strenu- 
ously opposed the doctrines of the people called 
Quakers. I am informed that he and his followers 
maintained a religious meeting, on the first day of 
the week, for above sixty years, and that their 
worship consisted of prayers to God, of preaching, 
or expounding the scriptures, and singing of psalms. 
He lived to a great age. He was of a good family 
in England, and says he made use of the learned 
languages in expounding the scriptures to his 
hearers. 

About 1642-3, there were two trading houses set 
up in the Narraganset country ; one by Mr. Wilcox 
and Mr. R. Williams, the other by Mr. Richard 
Smith, and some few plantations made near them, 
on particular grants or purchases of the Indians, 
but not very many till 1657 : when several gentle- 
men on the Island and elsewhere, made a con- 
siderable purchase, called the Petaquamscut pur- 
chase. And the same year, there was a purchase 
of the Island of Canonicut, as the smaller Islands 
had been purchased before. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 93 

In 1665, Misqiiamicut was purchased of the In- 
dians, and it was granted a township by the name 
of Westerly, 1669. In 1672, Manisses, called 
Block-Island, was made a township, by the name 
of New-Shoreham. In 1674, the inhabitants at 
Petaquamscut and parts adjacent, had their lands 
incorporated a township by the name of Kingston. 
And, in 1677, the town of East-Greenwich was in- 
corporated, and, 1678, Canonicut Island, or rather 
Quononoquot, was incorporated a township by the 
name of James-Town. In 1722, the lands properly 
called Narraganset, were divided into the two 
townships of North and South Kingston. In 1729, 
the whole Colony was divided into three counties, 
for the ease of the inhabitants. And, 1730, the 
town of Providence was divided into the four towns 
of Providence, Smithfield, Glocester, and Scituate; 
the whole land being filled with inhabitants, partly 
by the coming in of some few from other places, 
but chiefly by the natural increase of the first 
settlers.* In the foresaid year 1730, there was by 
the King's order, an exact account taken of the 
number of souls in the Colony,! and they were 

*In 1738, the town of Westerly is divided, and the 
easterly part of it erected into a township, by the name 
of Charlestown, which may be to the honor of King 
Charles II., who granted us our present Charter. 

■f The said account was taken before Providence town- 
ship was divided. The whole account is this : 



94 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

found to be no less than seventeen thousand nine 
hundred and thirty-five, of which no more than 
nine hundred and eighty-five were Indians, and 
one thousand six hundred and forty-eight negroes. 
So that the English in all were fifteen thousand 
three hundred and tAVo. 

Some of the principal persons who came at first 
to this Island, removed again in a little time, some 
to Long-Island for larger accommodations, some 
to Massachusetts again, where three* of those 
families have made a very considerable figure ever 
since to this day. A considerable number, like- 
wise, removed to the other towns in this Colony, 
and many settled in the parts adjacent, that are 
within the Colony of Plymouth. Nevertheless, in 
1730, the inhabitants of the whole Island were five 





Whites. 


Negroes. 


Indians. 


Newport, 


3843 


649 


148 


Providence, 


3707 


128 


81 


Portsmouth, 


643 


100 


70 


Warwick, 


1028 


77 


73 


Westerly, 


1620 


56 


250 


North-Kingston, 


1875 


165 


65 


South-Kingston, 


965 


333 


225 


East-Greenwich, 


1149 


40 


34 


Jamestown, 


222 


80 


19 


New-Shoreham, 


250 


20 


20 



15302 1648 98.5 

* Hutchinson, Dummer. Savage. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 95 

thousand four hundred and lifty-eight, and of tliis 
town four thousand six hundred and forty, who are 
no doubt by this time increased to five thousand 
souls. The trade and business of the town at the 
first, was but very little and inconsiderable, con- 
sisting only of a little corn, and pork and tobacco, 
sent to Boston for a few European and other goods 
they could not subsist without, and all at the mercy 
of the traders there, too.* At present, there are 
above one hundred sail of vessels belonging to this 
town, besides what belong to the rest of the Colony. 
Cxod grant, that as we increase in numbers and 
riches, we may not increase in sin and wickedness; 
but that we may rather be led, by the divine good- 
ness, to reform whatever may have been amiss or 
wanting among us. 

As to the forms of government we have passed 
under, it must be observed, the government has 
been ahvays more or less democratical. At the 

* Perhaps it may be agreeable to some persons to ob- 
serve, that about 1G60, and many years after, provision 
pay was one hundred per cent beneath sterling money. 
In 1G87, the prices of goods set to pay taxes in, were, 
wool eight pence per pound, butter four pence, Indian 
Corn one shilling and six pence per bushel. If the tax 
was paid in money, then there was to be an allowance or 
abatement of one-sixth part, and that perhaps will nearly 
give the true current price of those kinds of provisions, at 
that time. 



96 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

first incorporation on the Island, the people chose 
a Judge to do justice and judgment, and preserve 
the public peace ; and towards the latter end of 
the year, on the second day of the eleventh month, 
they added three gentlemen as Assistants to him in 
his office.* And soon after appointed all, to take 
the oath of allegiance to the King, according to the 
statute. In 1640, they voted the chief magistrate 
should be called Governor, the next Deputy Gov- 
ernor, and four gentlemen chosen out of the two 
towns, Assistants. Their names were W. Cod- 
dington, Governor; W. Brenton, Deputy Governor; 
N. Easton, J. Coggeshall, W. Hutchinson, J. Porter, 
Assistants. The next year, R. Harding was in Mr. 
Easton's place, and Mr. W. Baulston in the room 
of Mr. Hutchinson, (who perhaps removed,) and 
the next year Mr. Easton was chosen Assistant 
again, and those sixt gentlemen held their offices 
till the patent of incorporation. 

At Providence, all new comers promised " to sub- 
mit themselves in active or passive obedience to 
all such orders and agreements as shall be made 
for public good of the body, in an orderly way, by 

* The three elders were Nicholas Easton, John Cogges- 
hall, and William Brenton. 

■f The six gentlemen were W. Coddington, Governor, 
W. Brenton, Deputy Governor, N. Easton, J. Coggeshall, 
W. Baulston, and J. Porter, Assistants. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 97 

mn jor consent of tlie inliabitmits,"* but this bein2^ 
iiisiilticicut, 27th day Otli iiio., 1640, they did, to 
the number of near forty persons, combine in a 
form of civil government, according to a model 
drawn up by some of themselves, as most suitable 
to promote peace and order in their present circum- 
stances ; which, however, left them in a very feeble 
condition. 

But all the inhabitants in the Narraganset-Bay, 
])eing without a patent and any legal authority, 
1643, Mr. R. Williams went to England as agent, 
and, by the help and assistance of Sir Henry Vane, 
jun., obtained of the Earl of Warwick (appointed 
by Parliament Governor and Admiral of all the 
Plantations) and his council, " a free and absolute 



* The first twelve persons who came to Mr. Williams, 
and therefore had, by virtue of his conveyance, some pre- 
rogative with him, in the divisions, &c., of the land, were 
William Arnold, John Greene, John Throgmorton, Thomas 
James, WilHarn Harris, Thomas Olney, Richard Water- 
man, Francis Weston, Ezekiel Holliman, Robert Cole, 
Stukelcy Westcoat, and William Carpenter. Soon after 
came to them Chad Browne, Wm. Fairfield, J. Warner, 
E. Angel,t J. W indsor. R. Scott, Wm. Reinolds, Wm. 
Wickenden, Gregory Dexter, (fcc. &c., most of whose 
names remain in a numerous posterity. 

1 Callcndcr, who is rcniiirkablc for liis accuracy, here mistakes the 
Christian name. It should be Thomas Angel. See Backus, vol. I,j). 
74, note. — Editor. 

13 



98 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Charter of civil incorporation, by the name of the 
incorporation of Providence Plantations in the 
Narraganset-Bay in New-England ;" empowering 
them " to rule themselves, and such as should in- 
habit within their bounds, by such a form of civil 
government as by the voluntary agreement of all, 
or the greater part, shall be found most serviceable, 
in their estate and condition ; and to make suitable 
laws, agreeable to the laws of England, so far as 
the nature and constitution of the place will admit, 
<fec." It was dated 17th of March, 19th Charles, 
i. e. 1643-4, but it does not appear how long it 
was before Mr. Williams brought it over. It is 
not to be wondered at, if it took them some time 
to agree in a method. 

In 1647, May 19th, a General Assembly of the 
Province (as then called) established a body of 
very good and wholesome laws, agreeable to the 
English statute book ; and erected a form of civil 
government for the administration of the laws, 
and the making such other, as should be found ne- 
cessary. The supreme power was left in the body 
of the people, assembled in an orderly way ; a 
court of Commissioners, consisting of six persons, 
chosen by each of the four towns of Providence, 
Portsmouth, Newport, and Warwick, had a legis- 
lative authority; at least their acts were to be in 
force, unless repealed within a limited time by the 
vote of the major part of the freemen of the Prov- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 99 

ince, to be collected at their respective town meet- 
ings appointed for that end. 

A President and four Assistants were chosen 
yearly, to be conservators of the peace, with all 
civil power, and by a special commission they were 
judges of the court of trials, assisted by the two 
wardens or justices of the particular town in which 
tlie court sat from time to time. 

Every town chose a Council of six persons, to 
manage their town affairs, and their town court 
had the trial of small cases, but with an appeal to 
the court of the President and Assistants. 

This form of government subsisted till 1651, 
Avhen there were some obstructions to it, by a com- 
mission granted from the Council of State, to the 
principal inhabitant of the Island, to govern the 
Island with a Council chosen by the people, and 
approved by himself. But the people, thinking it 
" a violation or encroachment on their liberties and 
purchases, as granted and secured by Charter," 
immediately despatched Mr. R. Williams and Mr. 
J. Clark to England, as their agents; and they 
easily procured an order from the Council oi' State 
to vacate or suspend the commission. This order 
is dated 2d of October, 1652, but by reason of some 
misunderstandings between the four towns, it was 
a year or two before they returned to their old 
plan, wliich then lasted to the present Charter. 



loo HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Ill 1GG3, July 8, Charles II. granted an ample 
Charter, whereby the Province was made " a body 
corporate and politic, in fact and name, by the 
name of the Governor and Company of the English 
Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence Planta- 
tions hi New-England in America.'' This Charter' 
we enjoy to this day, through the merciful provi- 
dence of God. And as every one knows the form 
of government established in it, I need say but lit- 
tle about it. The Governor, the Deputy Governor, 
and ten Assistants chosen yearly by the freemen, 
on the first Wednesday in May, have the adminis- 
tration of the government in their hands ; and to- 
gether with thirty-six Deputies,* chosen half yearly 
by the several towns, make up the General As- 
sembly ; which is the highest Court in the Colony, 
and our Legislature : empowered to make laws as 
to them shall seem meet, for the good and welfare 
of the said Company — " so as such laws be not 
contrary and repugnant unto, but as near as may 
be, agreeable to the laws of England, considering 
the nature and constitution of the place and people 
there." 

This Assembly meets twice a year by Charter, 
on election day, and the last Wednesday of October. 

*The town of Charlestown being erected since this 
was prepared for the press, the number of Deputies is now 
thirty-eight. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 101 

The first, by law, is held at Newport, and the last 
at Providence and South-Kingston alternately. 
The Governor has no negative voice, and the ma- 
jor vote of the ^vhole Assembly in one House de- 
termines in the choice of civil or military officers ; 
but in the passing laws the Assembly sits in two 
Houses. 

It would be too tedious to give a particular ac- 
count of all the repeated attempts and stratagems 
made use of, to wrest the jurisdiction and propriety 
of a considerable part of the lands within our Pa- 
tent from the Colony. 

Therefore I proceed to say, 

When Colonel Dudley was appointed President 
of the Massachusetts, the Narraganset country, 
called then King's Province, was included in his 
commission. In 1685, October 6, a writ of quo 
icarranto was issued out against the Colony, which 
was brought here June 26, 1686, by Ed. Randolph, 
lisq., whereupon the free inhabitants, especially of 
the chief towns, met at Newport on the 29th, and 
gave in their opinion to the General Assembly, 
and left '^ the further proceeding to the judicious 
determination of the Assembly." The Assembly, 
upon serious ccmsideration, published and declared 
that they determined not to " stand suit with His 
Majesty, but to proceed, by liumble address to His 



102 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 

Majesty to continue their privileges and liberties 
according to the Charter;" and they accordingly 
sent home an address to the King, who by his an- 
swer promised them protection and favor. How- 
ever, the Colony was put under the government of 
Sir Ed. Andross, and " suffered with others, several 
hard.ships and severe impositions." 

The reasons why the Assembly chose not to 
stand suit with the King, were partly " their poverty 
and inability to bear the expense of such a law- 
suit in England, and partly the example of the 
many Corporations in England, which had in the 
like case surrendered their Charters;" and perhaps 
the secret hope they should find more favor with 
the King, by this way of proceeding, was the prin- 
cipal motive. 

January 12, 1(386-7. Sir Edmund Andross's 
commission to be Governor of this Colony, with 
the rest of New-England, was published here, and 
the Colony made one county, and governed by civil 
officers under him. 

After the revolution in England, there was a 
General Assembly of the freemen of the Colony at 
Newport, May 1, 1089, who agreed '• that since Sir 
Ed. Andross was seized and confined with others 
of his Council (at Boston) and his authority si- 
lenced and deposed, it was their duty to lay hold 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 103 

of their former Charter privileges ; and avowedly 
professing all allegiance to the crown of England, 
they replaced all the general officers that had been 
displaced three years before. But some of the gen- 
tlemen afterwards declining to act by this authority, 
a General Assembly, called February 20 following, 
elected others in their room. And there having 
been no judgment against the Charter, the govern- 
ment allowed of the resuming it, and through the 
divine goodness, and the clemency, justice, and 
prudence of our Princes, it has been continued 
ever since. God grant, we may never forfeit nor 
lose our precious and invaluable liberties and privi- 
leges ; and that we may ever use them with pru- 
dence and discretion, with gratitude to God, the 
governor of the world; and with loyalty to the 
crown ! 

It is now more than time for me to lay before 
you, some account of our religious affairs. 

It is a pity we cannot entirely confute all the 
opprobrious things which some have written of 
some of the iidiabitants. I am satisfied a great 
many of them were wholly groundless, many others 
very much aggravated and misrepresented, and 
some things made to be reproaches which in reality 
were praiseworthy. 

I take it to have been no dishonor to the Colony, 
that Christians, of every denomination, were suf- 



104 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

fered to lead quiet and peaceable lives, without 
any lines or punishments for their speculative 
opinions, or for using those external forms of wor- 
ship they believed God had appointed, and would 
accept. Bigots may call this confusion and dis- 
order, and it may be so, according to their poor 
worldly notions of religion, and the kingdom of 
Christ. But the pretended order of human au- 
thority, assuming the place and prerogatives of 
Jesus Clirist, and trampling on the consciences of 
his subjects, is, as Mr. R. Williams most justly 
calls it, " monstrous disorder." 

Though it 1)6 very certain, that a public worship 
of God is very necessary, even to civilize mankind, 
who would be likely to lose all sense of religion 
without it; yet it will not follow, that the civil 
magistrate, as such, has authority to appoint the 
rites of worship, and constrain all his subjects to 
use them, much less to punish them for using any 
other. What has been forever the consequences 
of his pretending to such authority, and using his 
power to support it 7 What glory doth it bring to 
God, and what good can it do to men, to force 
them to attend a worship they disapprove? It can 
only make them hypocrites, and God abhors such 
worshippers. 

Notwithstanding our constitution left every one 
to his own liberty, and his conscience ; and not- 



HI.STORTCAL DISCOTTRSE. 1U5 

withstanding the variety of ophiions that were en- 
tertained, and notwithstanding some may have con- 
tracted too great an indiflerence to any social wor- 
ship, yet I am well assured there scarce ever was a 
time, the lumdred years past, in which there was 
not a weekly public worship of God, attended by 
Christians, on this Island and in the other first 
towns of the Colony. 

It is no ways unlikely, some odd and whimsical 
opinions may have been broached ; the liberty en- 
joyed here, would tempt persons distressed for their 
opinions in the neighboring governments, to retire 
to this Colony as an asylum. It is no ways un- 
likely, that some persons of a very different genius 
and spirit from the first settlers, might intrude 
themselves, and use this liberty as an occasion to 
the flesh ; but the first set of men who came here, 
w^ere a pious generation, men of virtue and godli- 
ness, notwithstanding their tincture of enthusiasm, 
which was not peculiar to them ; and notwithstand- 
ing their peculiar opinions of justification, and the 
nature and rights of the Christian church. They 
had not so many great and wise men among them, 
perhaps, as were in some of the other Colonies ; 
but their whole number was very small, in com- 
parison with the other Colonies. Nevertheless, 
they had some very considerable men, and of su- 
perior merit. It is true, likewise, their form of 
goveriunent was too fec])le ; their first Patent left 
M 



lOG HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

them without sufficient authority in their civil 
officers, to check any popular humors ; hut yet, 
they did, and that as early as the Massachusetts 
Colony, form a body of good laws, by which all 
vice, and every immorality, was discouraged or 
punished. And throughout the whole history of 
the Island and Colony, there is manifestly an aim 
and endeavor to prevent or suppress all disorders 
and immoralities, and to promote universal peace, 
virtue, godliness, and charity. 

I do not pretend to defend all the opinions that 
were entertained by any of them ; much less, all 
the extravagant notions that were unjustly ascribed 
to some of them ; nor yet to justify every Avord or 
action that might be the effect of heated zeal, or 
raised indignation and resentment. That man, 
who w411 go about to justify or condemn a party, in 
the gross, and without distinction, shall never be 
approved or imitated by me ; much less can it be 
expected, I should defend all the opinions of so 
many different religious parties, as were here 
united in civil peace. However, I dare say it after 
Mr. J. Clark, that " notwithstanding the different 
consciences and understandings among them, they 
agreed to maintain civil justice and judgments; 
neither were there such outrages committed among 
them, as in other parts of the country were fre- 
quently seen." {Clark's Nar. Introd.) And I 
bear them witness, thev liad a zeal for God ; If it 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 107 

were not according to knowledge in ever article, 
yet they lay open to instruction, desirous to find 
out and discover the whole mind and will of God ; 
which cannot so truly be said of all places, where 
yet men are not more infallible. If there were 
any of them, who made shipwreck of faith and a 
good conscience, perhaps it would be as easy, as it 
would be invidious, to find parallels enough in other 
places, to shew there are other dangerous rocks, 
besides liberty of conscience. It is an unaccount- 
able humor that has prevailed among too many 
Christian sects, to make religion and the gospel 
consist in their own peculiar and distinguishing 
tenets, which would almost tempt an impartial 
man to think it ought rather to consist in those 
things, wherein they are most generally agreed, 
and conclude in the words of the excellent Dr. 
Cotton Mather : '' The period hastens for a new 
reformation, wherein it is likely none of our very 
best parties will be, in all things, the standard of 
what shall prevail in the world, but our holy Lord 
will form a new people of those good men that shall 
unite in the articles of their goodness, and sweetly 
bear with one another in their lesser differences." 
{Good Men United, p. 26-7. 

It must be a mean, contracted way of thinking, 
to confine the favor of God and the power of godli- 
ness, to one set of speculative opinions, or any par- 
ticular external forms of worship. How hard must 



108 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

it be, to imagine all other Christians but ourselves 
must be formal and hypocritical, and destitute of 
the grace of God, because their education or ca- 
pacity differs from ours, or that God has given 
them more or less light than to us, though we can- 
not deny, they give the proper evidence of their 
fearing God, by their working righteousness ; and 
shew their love to him, by keeping what they under- 
stand he has commanded ; and though their faith 
in Christ Jesus purifies their hearts, and works by 
love, and overcomes the world. It would be hard 
to shew, why liberty of conscience, mutual forbear- 
ance and good will, why brotherly kindness and 
charity, is not as good a center of unity, as a con- 
strained uniformity in external ceremonies, or a 
forced subscription to ambiguous articles. Ex- 
perience has dearly convinced the world, that 
unanimity in judgment and affection cannot be 
secured by penal laws. Who can tell, why the 
unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace, is not 
enough for Christians to aim at 1 And who can 
assign a reason, why they may not love one another, 
though abounding in their own several senses? 
And why, if they live in peace, the God of love and 
peace may not be with them 7 

Indulgence to tender consciences, might be a re- 
proach to the Colony, an hundred years ago, but a 
better way of thinking prevails in the Protestant 
part of the Christian church at present. It is now 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. lUl) 

a glory to the Colony, to have avowed such senli- 
iiients so long ago, while blindness in this article 
happened in other places, and to have led the way 
as an example to others, and to have first put the 
theory into practice. 

Liberty of conscience is more fully established 
and enjoyed now, in the other A^ew-English 
Colonies ; and our mother Kingdom grants a legal 
toleration to all peaceable and conscientious dis- 
senters from the parliamentary establishment. 
Greater light breaking into the world and the 
church, and especially all parties by turns expe- 
riencing and complaining aloud of the hardships of 
constraint, they are come to allow as reasonable to 
all others, what they want and challenge for them- 
selves. And there is no other bottom but this to 
rest upon, to leaA e others the liberty we should de- 
sire ourselves, the liberty wherewith Christ hath 
made them free. This is doing as we would be 
done by, the grand rule of justice and equity; this 
is leaving the government of tlie church to Jesus 
Christ, the King and head over all things, and 
suffering his subjects to obey and serve him. 

But to take things in their order, Mr. R. Williain^ 
is said, in a few years after his settling at Provi- 
dence, to have embraced the opinions of the people 
called (by way of reproach) Anabaptists, in respect 
to the subject and mode of baptism ; and to have 



110 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 

formed a cliurch there, in that Avay, with the lielp 
of one Mr. Ezekiel HoUiman,* and that after a 
while he renounced these opinions likewise, and 
turned seeker, i. e. to wait for new apostles to re- 
store Christianity. He believed the Christian re- 
ligion to have been so corrupted and disfigured in 
what he called the '^ apostacy, as that there was 
no ministry of an ordinary vocation left in the 
church, but prophecy," and that there was need of 
a special commission, to restore the modes of posi- 
tive worship, according to the original institution. 
It does not appear to me, that he had any doubt of 
the true mode, and proper subjects of baptism, but 

* Since this was transcribed for the press, I find some 
reasons to suspect, that Mv. Williams did not form a 
Church of the Anabaptists, and that he never joined with 
the Baptist Church there. Only, that he allowed them to 
be nearest the scripture rule, and true primitive practice, 
as to the mode and subject of baptism. But that he him- 
self waited for new apostles, &c. The most ancient in- 
habitants now alive, some of them above eighty years old, 
who personally knew Mr. Williams, and were well acquain- 
ted with many of the original settlers, never heard that 
Mr. Williams formed the Baptist Church there, but al- 
ways understood that Mr. Browne, Mr. Wickenden or 
Wiginton, Mr. Dexter, Mr. Olney, Mr. Tillinghast, &c., 
were the first founders of that Church. f 

t " I have one of the Century Sermons of Mr. Callender, with a dele 
upon this note, in his own hand writing." See manuscript materials for 
a history of the Baptists, by the Rev. Morgan Edwards, in the cabinet 
of the Rhode-Island Historical Soc'iciy .^Editor. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Ill 

tliat no man had any authority to revive tlie prac- 
tice of the sacred ordinances, without a new and 
immediate commission. It is also said, (JVcale,) 
" That his church hereupon crumbled to pieces, 
every one following his own fancy, and the worship 
of God came to be generally neglected." But I 
believe this to be a mistake in fact, for it certainly 
appears, there was a flourishing church of the 
Baptists there, a few years after the time of the 
supposed breakmg to pieces ; and it is known by 
the names of the members, as well as by tradition, 
they were some of the first settlers at Providence ; 
however, it is possible some of his followers might 
embrace his new opinions. Mr. Williams used to 
uphold a public worship, sometimes, though not 
weekly, as many now alive remember, and he used 
to go once a month, for many years, to Mr. Smith's 
in the Narraganset, for the same end. 

There was no reason to lay aside the use of the 
sacred institutions of Jesus Christ, because they 
had been perverted, for surely the disciples of 
Jesus Christ must of necessity have an inherent 
right to revive, or rectify, any of his ordinances 
that have been misused. The Protestants in 
general have done so, by both sacraments, which 
they have all of them rescued from some or other 
of the corruptions of Popery. And why they may 
not be as well rescued from every corruption, as 
from some, and why Christians may not revive the 



112 IIIRTORICAT- DISCOURSE. 

true form oC adiniiii.steriiig baptism, as well as the 
supper, is hard to tell, unless we make a charm of 
the institution. So long as we have the New Tes- 
tament, wherein the original commission and in- 
structions are contained, we can want no immediate 
warrant to obey the general laws of Christ, any 
more than a new revelation, and new miracles, to 
justify our believing the old facts and doctrines of 
the gospel. The Bible contains the religion of 
Christians, and the word of God is a sufficient rule 
of faith and worship. Had Mr. Williams adhered 
to this maxim, the maxim of the Protestants, and 
more especially of the Puritans, he might liave 
continued an Anabaptist all his days, as it is said 
he was more inclinable to them in his latter time. 

Bishop Sanderson says, ( Veneer on the thirty- 
nine articles, p. 655,) that " the Rev. Archbishop 
Whitgift, and the learned Hooker, men of great 
judgment, and famous in their times, did long since 
foresee and declare their fear, that if ever Puri- 
tanism sliould prevail among us, it would soon 
draw in Anabaptism after it. — This Cartwright 
and the Disciplinarians denied, and were offended 
at. — But these good men judged right ; they con- 
sidered, only as prudent men, that Anabaptism had 
its rise from the same principles the Puritans held, 
and its growth from the same course they took ; 
together with the natural tendency of their prin- 
ciples and practices toward it ; especially that one 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. Ho 

PRINCIPLE, as it was then by tlicni misunderstood, 
that the scripture was adequata agendorum regula^ 
so as nothing might be lawfully done, without ex- 
press warrant, either from some command or ex- 
ample therein contained; which clue, if followed 
as far as it would go, would certainly in time carry 
them as far as the Anabaptists had then gone." 

This I beg leave to look on as a most glorious 
concession of the most able adversaries. One 
party contend, that the scripture is the adequate 
rule of worship, and for the necessity of some com- 
mand or example there ; the other party say this 
leads to Anabaptism. It seems vey remarkable, 
that the Puritans, at least some of the Puritans, 
put the baptism of infants, and the administering 
baptism by sprinkling, on a different foot from 
many of the other party. It was one grand reason 
of the Plymouth people's discontent in Holland, 
that the Dutch would not reform the custom of 
baptising indifferently the children of all persons 
that had been themselves baptised in infancy. 
And it was once a great complaint against New- 
England, that the children only of visible church 
members were admitted to baptism. Nor did the 
general way of baptising the grand children of the 
covenant, or the infants of such as do what is 
called "owning the covenant," (a phrase and way 
peculiar perhaps to New-England,) take place, 
without w very great and lojig struggle : perhaps 

15 



114 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

it docs not yetuiiivcrsLilly prevail. When the first 
principles and practice of New-England are in- 
quired into, and compared together, and with those 
that prevailed forty years after; it will be found 
no great wonder, if a person (and there have been 
such persons) who heard the unanswerable argu- 
ments with which some Pa?do-baptists prove the 
infants of those who are not members of some 
visible church, are not to be baptised ; and the 
like powerful arguments, with which others prove 
that other infants have an equal right and claim 
with the infants of church members ; I say, it would 
be no wonder, if such a person should believe them 
both, and concUide in the words of the late ex- 
cellent Dr. C. Mather, on a like occasion, " that 
regeneration is the thing, without which, a title 
unto sacraments is not to be pretended ; that real 
regeneration is that which, before God, renders 
men capable of claiming sacraments ; and visible 
or expressed regeneration, is that which, before 
men, enables them to make such a claim." Comj). 
for Comm. p. 31.) 

But to return. About the year 1G53 or 54, there 
was a division in the Baptist Church, at Provi- 
dence, about the right of laying on of hands, which 
some pleaded for as essentially necessary to church 
communion, and the others would leave indifferent. 
Hereupon they walked in two churches, one under 
Mr. C. Browne, Mr. Wickenden, (tc, the other 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 115 

under Mr. Thomas Oliiey ;* but laying on oi' hands 
at length generally obtained. 

It is remarkable, that the principles of a too 
rigid separation, planted by Mr. Williams, have 
taken a deep root, while some other of his darling 
opinions are almost withered away. That church 
which was distinguished by holding laying on of 
hands necessary to all baptised persons, came in 
time, generally to hold universal redemption. 

This Church shot out into divers branches, as 
the members increased, and the distance of their 
habitations made it inconvenient to attend the 
public worship in the town ; several meetings were 
thereupon fixed at different places, for their ease 
and accommodation ; and about the time the large 
township of Providence became divided into four 
towns, these chapels of ease began to be considered 
as distinct churches, though all are yet in a union 
of counsels and interests. And there is a strict 
Association of all the Baptist Churches in New- 
England, that hold the doctrine of laying on of 
hands, in that sense, maintained by yearly meet- 
ings of the elders and brethren, at several places, ' 

*This last continued till about twenty years since, 
when becommg deslitate of an elder, the members were 
united with other churches. At present, there is some 
prospect of their re-establishment in church order. 



1 l() HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

froin (iine to time, Avhcrc llic affairs of all the 
Churclics are considered. 

The people who came to Rhode-Island, who 
were Puritans of the highest form, had desired and 
depended on the assistance of Mr. Wheelwright, a 
famous Congregational minister aforementioned. 
But he chose to go to Long-Island, where he con- 
tinued some years. In the mean time, Mr. John 
Clark, who was a man of letters, carried on a pub- 
lic worship, (as Mr. Brewster did at Plymouth,) at 
the first coming, till they procured Mr. Lenthal, of 
Weymouth, who was admitted a freeman here, 
August 6, 1640. And August 20, Mr. Lenthal was 
by vote called to keep a public school for the learn- 
ing of youth, and for his encouragement there was 
granted to him and his heirs one hundred acres of 
land, and four more for an house lot ; it was also 
voted, "that one hundred acres should be laid forth, 
and appropriated for a school, for encouragement 
of the poorer sort, to train up their youth in learn- 
ing, and Mr. Robert Lenthal, while he continues to 
teach school, is to have the benefit thereof." But 
this gentleman did not tarry here very long : I find 
him gone to England the next year but one ; but 
there is no reason to think that persons of their 
zeal should immediately fall into a total neglect of 
a social worship. One of their first cares, both at 
Portsmouth and at Newport, was to build a Meet- 
ing House, which I suppose was designed for public 
worship. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 117 

It is said that, in 1644, Mr. John Clark and some 
others formed a Church on the scheme and prin- 
ciples of the Baptists. It is certain that in 1648 
there were fifteen members in full communion.* 
And it is this Church, of which we are, by Divine 
l*rovidence, the successors, thouEjh with some little 
V ariation in the points which their adversaries had 
objected to them, in the other Colony. And thus 
all the Churches of Christ in New-England have 
meliorated their opinions, and ways of speaking of 
some points, since that age of dispute, contention 
and temptation. However, I have good reason to 
think, the first founders of this church would have 
heartily joined in that explanation, which was ac- 
cepted from Mr. Cotton, by the synod, and which 
is said " to make an happy conclusion of the whole 
matter," and I .suppose every one of the present 
members would readily subscribe it, viz. " That 
we are not married to the Lord Jesus Christ, with- 
out faith, giving an actual consent of the soul to 
it; that effectual calling, and the soul's appre- 
hending by faith, is in the order of nature, before 
God's act of justification on the soul; and that in 
the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which is the evi- 
dence of our good estate before God, the qualifica- 

*The names of the males were, John Clark, Mark 
Liikar, Nathanacl West, Wm. Vahan, Thomas Clark, 
Joseph Clark, John Peckham, John Thorndon, William 
Weeden, and Samuel Hubbard. 



118 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

tions of inlierent graces, and the fruits thereof, 
proving the sincerity of our faith, must ever be co- 
existent, concurrent, and co-apparent, or else the 
conceived testimony of the Spirit is either a delu- 
sion or doubtful ?" {^Magnal. b. 7, p. 17.) In this 
Church there were several persons, able to speak 
to the edification of the rest ; and I have been in- 
formed by tradition, that the greatest part of the 
inhabitants used to attend this worship, thougli the 
members in church fellowship were always but 
few. 

In 1652 (during Mr. Clark's absence in England) 
some of the brethren embraced the opinion of lay- 
ing on of hands, as necessary to all baptised per- 
sons, and in the year 1654 or 1656, the opinion it 
was necessary to church communion and fellow- 
ship, together with their opinions of the doctrines 
of grace and free-w ill, occasioned some of them to 
separate, and form a Church by themselves, under 
the leading of Mr. Wm. Vahan ; this Church con- 
tinues to this day, and is numerous ; at present 
under the pastoral care of Messrs. D. Wightman 
and N. Eyres. 

In 1656 or 1657, some of the ])e(^ple called 
(Quakers came to this Colony and Ishmd; and 
being persecuted and abused in tlie otlier Colonies, 
that, together with the opinions and circumstances 
of the people here, gave them a very large harvest; 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 119 

many, and some of the Baptist Church, embraced 
their doctrines and particular opinions, to which 
many of their posterity, and others, still adhere. 

About 1G65, a number of the members of the 
Clmrch under Mr. J. Clark, removed to the new 
plantation at Westerly, among whom Mr. John 
Crandal was a preacher and elder. They after- 
wards did generally embrace the Seventh-Day 
Sabbath, and their successors are now a very large 
and flourishing Church, under the pastoral care of 
Messrs. J. and J. Maxon, and Mr. William Hiscox, 

In 1671, some of the members of Mr. Clark's 
Church, who had been in the observation of the 
Seventh-Day Sabbath for some years, thought it 
proper and necessary to draw off by themselves ; 
and they erected a Church, under the leading of 
Mr. William Hiscox. It is under the roof of their 
successors we are now assembled.* Mr. J. Cran- 
dal, elder of this Church, died the 12th of Septem- 
ber, 1737. 

In 1695, several ministers of the Massachusetts 
Colony came and preached here to some who had 
desired it. The next year there was a Meeting 



* While our Church is erecting a new and more con- 
venient Meeting House, we are kindly favored with the 
use of this, belonging to the Sabbatarian Church. 



120 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

House erected, in which the public worship of God 
was maintained by the Kev. Mr. Nathanael Clap. 
In 1720, there was a Church in the Congregational 
scheme gathered, and he was ordained the pastor, 
and is still alive, laboring in the word and doctrine. 
In 1728, there was another Church formed out of 
this ; the present pastor the Rev. Mr. James Sear- 
ing. 

About 1700, the worship of God, according to 
the rites of the Church of England, was began to 
be set up here, by the Society for propagating the 
gospel in foreign parts. Mr. Lockyer was the first 
Missionary, succeeded by the Rev. Mr. James 
Honyman, at present the most ancient Missionary 
of the Church of England in all America. 

So that there are at this time, seven worshipping 
Assemblies, Churches or Societies, in this town, 
besides a large one of the people called Q,uakers, 
at Portsmouth, the other part of the Island. 

I am not able to assign the exact date, when 
every Church or meeting began, or every Meeting 
House was built, in all the several towns of the 
Colony. But there are now in the other eleven 
towns no less than twenty-five distinct Societies or 
worshipping Assemblies of Christians ; besides 
several places where there are occasional meetings, 
in some part of the year, or at certain seasons, as 



HISTORICAI, DISCOURSE. 121 

is the custom in the other Colonies, among the new 
or scattered settlements. 

There are in the nine towns on the main land, 
eight Churches of the people called Baptists, one 
in every town, except Greenwich, where there is, 
however, a Meeting House, in which there is a 
meeting once a month.* 

Of the people called Quakers, there are seven 
Meeting Houses on the main land, and one at 
James-Town on Conanicut Island ; and a constant 
meeting at Westerly, though no Meeting House 
yet erected. 

There are four Episcopal Churches on the main, 
one at Providence, to which the Rev. Mr. John 
Checkley is appointed, and one at North-Kingston, 
of which the Rev. James M'cSparran, D. D., is the 
present rector ; besides one at Westerly, and one 
on the edge of Warwick, adjoining to East-Green- 
wich, which are occasionally supplied by the Mis- 
sionaries at other towns. 

* The names of the elders of these Churches are, at 
Providence, Mr. T. Windso r, and Tiio. Burhngham ; at 
Smithfield, Mr. Josias Cooke ; at Scituatc, Mr. S. Fisk ; 
at Glocester, Mr. Ed. Mitchcl ; at Warwick, Mr. Manasseh 
Martyn and Mr. Francis Bates ; at N. Kingston, Mr. R. 
Sweot and Mr. B. Herrington ; at S. Kingston, Mr. 
Daniel E^/erit. 

16 



122 mSTORICAT, DISCOURSE. 

There are three Presbyterian or Congregational 
Churches, at Providence, South-Kingston and 
Westerly ; each of them supplied at present with 
a pastor, viz. the Rev. Mr. Josiah Cotton, at Provi- 
dence ; the Rev. Mr. Joseph Torrey, at South- 
Kingston ; and the Rev. Mr. Joseph Park, at 
Westerly. And at New-Shoreham or Block-Island 
there is a Meeting House, which is at present sup- 
plied with a preacher. 

Thus, notwithstanding all the liberty and in- 
dulgence here allowed, and notwithstanding the 
inhabitants have been represented as living with- 
out a public worship, and as ungospelized plan- 
tations ; we see there is some form of godliness 
every where maintained. God grant the power 
may always accompany the form, and that all that 
name the name of Christ may depart from iniquity; 
may Christ Jesus walk in the midst of his golden 
candlesticks, and hold the stars in his right hand ; 
and may he heal all divisions among his disciples ; 
may he unite the hearts of all that love him, to 
love one another ; may he grant them to be all 
like-minded, and may pure religion, and undefiled 
before God and the Father, thrive and flourish 
among us ! 

It remains now that I say a few words relating 
to the state of the Indians, within the bounds of 
this Colony, and the circumstances of the English 
in regard to them. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 123 

111 general, all the New-English Colonies were 
at the first but one interest, in relation to the In- 
dians, and though the other four called themselves 
the united Colonies, there was a commission from 
this Colony to Mr. Williams and Mr. Clark, to 
enter into a league offensive and defensive with 
them. 

A few years, three or four, before the English 
came to Plymouth, the Indians had been dread- 
fully wasted away by devouring sickness, from 
Narraganset to Penobscut. So that the living 
sufficed not to bury the dead, and the ground was 
covered with their bones in many places. This 
wonderfully made room for the English at Plymouth 
and Massachusetts, and those Colonies protected 
the rest. 

In the year 1637, the English with united forces 
subdued the Pequots, who had attacked their 
brethren in Connecticut ; the Narragansets, who 
bordered on the Pequot's land, consented and as- 
sisted in their destruction, through a desire of re- 
venge, which is remarka])le in all the savages, 
though their old sachem desired to have preserved 
peace. 

The Nanhygansicks, or Narragansets, inhabited 
the lands, or governed over all the Indians within 
the bounds of this Colony. They were a nume- 



124 IIISTOUICAL DISCOURSE. 

roiis, a rich, and powcrCiil people : and tliougli 
they arc, by some, said to have been less fierce 
and warlike than the Pequots, yet it appears they 
had lately, before the English came, not only in- 
creased their numbers, by receiving many who 
had iled to them from the devouring sickness or 
plague in the other parts of the land ; but they 
had enlarged their territories, and that both on the 
eastern and western boundaries. They were 
reckoned five thousand figliting men. {ATS. of Mr. 
R. W. in evidence.) And Mr. Williams says, they 
were so populous, that a traveller would meet with 
a dozen Indian towns in twenty miles. 

In the midst of this mighty and haughty people, 
the little handful of helpless English ventured to 
sit down ; though not without taking all possible 
precautions, on the one hand, to give them no just 
offence, and on the other hand to keep themselves 
in the best posture of defence their circumstances 
would admit of. But the conquest and utter de- 
struction of the Pequots, had for the present en- 
deared Englishmen to the Narragansets. And the 
conduct and valor they had shewn, and the won- 
derful success of their expedition, had made them 
a terror to all the Indian nations round about. 

Mr. Williams at first " made a league of peace- 
able neighborhood with all the sachems and natives 
round about;" in this, Rhode-Island was included. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 125 

And, oil tlicTtli of July, 1640, Mr. Coddiiigtoii, with 
the rest of his Assistants, had a particular treaty 
of peace and amity with Myantonomy and the rest 
of the sachems. Nevertheless, the next year there 
was a misunderstanding, and some hostilities, oc- 
casioned, I think, by some of the Indians (if not 
Myantonomy himself) kindling fire in Mr. Easton's 
land. Lord's Day, April 4, 1641, whereby an house 
of his was burnt. But whether it was designedly, 
or only through carelessness, does not plainly ap- 
pear in the records. However, it alarmed the 
people, and among other measures, they fitted out 
an armed boat, to ply round the Island, to keep off 
the Indians from landing; and it seems, in some 
scuffle on that account, two Englishmen were 
wounded, and one Indian slain ; though the orders 
to the soldiers were as mild and prudent as could 
be given. They likewise appointed garrison houses, 
to which the people were to repair on an alarm. 
Among which, I find one was Mr. Lenthal's, the 
minister. But the rupture lasted not long, before 
peace was restored. 

In 1643, Myantonomy, the great sachem of the 
Narragansets, was taken prisoner by Uncas, sa- 
chem of the Moheags, and some time after slain, 
and as some of the English say, after quarter and 
promise of life given. This excited his subjects to 
revenge his death, but the terror of the English at 
the Massachusetts kept them quiet. And so it is 



126 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

said, that seven years after, there were some com- 
motions stilled by the same terror, and so likewise 
in 1653, <fec. &c. 

In 1652, when the Council of State confirmed 
their Patent, the people were put on some enter- 
prises against the Dutch at New-York, or New- 
Netherlands, and the next year the Island sent 
some men to the assistance of their countrymen, 
settled at Long-Island, which gave great offence 
to the towns on the main, and in the two Dutch 
wars, in King Charles 2d's time, the Colony and 
Island were put to considerable expense and trouble 
to put and keep themselves in a posture of defence. 

In 1675, Philip, King of the Wampanoags, began 
a war against Plymouth Colony in June, which 
soon spread almost throughout all New-England. 
Tradition says,* " He was forced on by the fury of 
his young men, sore against his own judgment and 
inclination ; and that though he foresaw, and fore- 

* All the histories from Mr. Hubbard and Dr. Mather, 
make Philip to be the spring and mover of the war ; but 
there is a constant tradition among the posterity of the 
people, who lived next to him, and were familiarly con- 
versant with him, as also with the Indians who survived 
the war, that both Philip and his chief old men were ut- 
terly averse to the war, and they shew the spot (Kikemuit 
spring, in a farm belonging to Stephen Paine, Esq., in 
Bristol) where Philip received the news of the first En- 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 127 

told the English would in time by their industry, 
root out all the Indians, yet he was against making 
war Avith them, as what he thought would only 
hurry on and increase the destruction of his people;" 
and the event proved he judged right. The Pow- 
aws had foretold Philip, no Englishman should 
ever kill him, which accordingly proved true ; he 
was shot dead by an Indian.* 

glishmen that were killed, with grief and sorrow, and 
wept at the news ; and that a day or two before the first 
outrages, he had protected an Enghshman the Indians 
had captivated, rescued him from them, and privately 
sent him home safe. 

* I have heard from some old people, who were fa- 
miliarly acquainted with the Indians, both before and 
after the war, that the Powaws had likewise given out 
another ambiguous oracle, which did very much spirit 
on the Indians to war at first, and afterwards as much dis- 
couraged them, viz. that they promised the Indians would 
be successful, if the English fired the first gun. It is 
certain the Indians long delayed, and designedly avoided 
firing on the English, and seemed to use all possible means 
to provoke the English to fire first, by rifling their houses, 
abusing their cattle, threatening and insulting their per- 
sons, &c. And the histories carry it, that an English- 
man fired the first gun, at Metapoiset garrison, some days 
before any English were slain. But those ancient people, 
since dead, told me, that by a mistake, occasioned through 
the hurry and trepidation which usually attends the be- 
ginning of any considerable enterprise, an Indian fired tlie 



128 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 

When Philip could no longer resist the impor- 
tunity of his warriors, he, like a wise man, took the 
most proper measures to make their enterprise ef- 
fectual, especially by an early endeavor to per- 
suade the other Indian nations into the war, that 
with united forces they might fall on the English 
every where at once; and particularly he en- 
deavored to persuade the Narragansets, who had 
several pretensions to quarrel with the English, 
and who were then reputed four thousand* fighting 

first gun, (whether on Pocasset side, where there was a 
skirmish at the beginning of the war, that is not mentioned 
by Mr. Hubbard, &c., I cannot noAV say,) and that the 
news of this, when known among the Indians, was a fatal 
wound to their courage, they saying the Englishman's 
God would now subdue them, which contributed not a 
little to their after destruction. This I always looked on 
as a very remarkable passage, but the authors before men- 
tioned, and Col. Church, who had by far the best means 
to be informed in all circumstances relating to the be- 
ginning and progress of the war in this part of the country, 
being wholly silent about it; and the few ancient people 
who are now alive, that were actors in the war, not re- 
taining any perfect tradition of the matter, the reader may 
entertain tlie story as he pleases ; I dare not warrant the 
truth of it, but only that I certainly heard the story from 
some ancient people of Swausey, since deceased. 

*Mr. Hubbard says, page 13: ''The Narhagansets 
promised to rise with four thousand in the spring of the 
year 1676," and in a postscript, says, "Concerning the 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 129 

men. But whether the war began too soon for 
them, or the first begmnmgs discom*aged them, or 
that they did not intend to make war at all ; they 
renewed their league of peace and war with the 
united Colonies, in July, a month after Philip had 
began hostilities at Swansey. 

However, when he was driven out of his country, 
they were charged to have received and entertained 
his people. Whereupon the united Colonies sent 
an army of a thousand men, under Jos. Winslow, 
Esq. He arriA^ed with the Massachusetts and 
Plymouth forces, the 12tli of December, at Major 



Narhagansets, this is further to be added here, that Mr. 
Thomas Stanton and his son Robert, who have a long 
time lived amongst them, and are best acquainted with 
their language and manners of any in New-England, do 
affirm that, to their knowledge, the Narhaganset sachems, 
before the late troubles, had two thousand fighting men 
under them, and nine liundred arms." These accounts 
are perhaps both true, for the first might mean to contain 
all the Indians in the bounds of this Colony, who being 
under the authority of the great Narhaganset sachem, 
were often called by this general name ; and were per- 
haps four thousand fighting men. Mr. Stanton might 
mean only those properly or precisely called Narraganset 
Indians, in distinction from the Indians at Providence and 
the Indians at Warwick, who joined in the war under 
Pomham, &c., and from the Nyhantic Indians, under 
Ninigret, who did not join in the war ; though these were 

17 



130 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

Smith's, in North-Kingston ; on the 18th, the Con- 
necticut men being arrived, the army inarched the 
next day near eighteen miles to a sort of fort, 
(19th of December,) Avhich the Indians had raised 
on an Island of upland, in the midst of a most 
hideous swamp. Their Indian guide led them to 
the only place where it could be attacked ; the 
English fell on with too much courage and eager- 
ness, which proved fatal to some of their valiant 
Captains. However, their victory was complete ; 
the fort w as taken, and it is said seven hundred 
fighting men, and twenty chief Captains of the 
enemy were slain that day, besides women and 
children ; and three hundred more died of their 



always, and to this day are, frequently included in the 
general name of Narhaganset Indians. What seems to 
confirm this, is what Mr. Hubbard adds, viz. "Yet are 
they so broken and scattered at this day, that there is 
none of them left on this side the country, unless some 
few, not exceeding seventy in number, that have sheltered 
themselves under the inhabitants of Rhode-Island, as a 
merchant of that place, worthy of credit, lately affirmed 
to the writer hereof" Those sheltered at the Island 
were either prisoners of war, or such as had voluntarily 
surrendered themselves to the English for protection, on 
promise of life. But it is well known, that Ninigret's 
men alone vastly exceeded that number ; besides there 
were divers prisoners at Providence. And that side of 
the country was much fuller of Indians, in the memory 
of very many now alive. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 131 

wounds afterwards, besides the vast numbers who 
perislied through cold and hunger. The loss to 
the English was of about eighty men ; six Captains 
>slain, and one hundred and lifty men wounded, 
many of them by their own friends. Towards 
night, they set lire to the fort, and retreated to 
their head quarters, through the cold and snow. 
Some thought, if they had kept possession of the 
fort, where was the Indian provisions, they might 
have saved many of their own wounded men, and 
that the Indians must all have perished, through 
cold and hunger, or surrendered at discretion, the 
next morning. Others thought it a merciful provi- 
dence, they retreated so soon, notwithstanding the 
fatigue of such a retreat. But however that be, 
which cannot so well be judged of now,* the 

* Mr. Hubbard represents the burning the fort as ne- 
cessary to dislodge the Indians, and after that the retreat 
must be also necessary. However, he mentions their 
want of provisions, by means of their vessels being frozen 
in at Cape Cod. He says there was a great quantity of 
provisions burned in the four or five hundred wigwams in 
the fort. And he several times laments the misery of 
the wounded men, in marching near eighteen miles 
through the cold and snow that night, before their wounds 
could be dressed. But Col. Church, who was present 
and wounded in the action, tells us, he vehemently op- 
posed the firing the fort ; that the General was surprised 
into it, and he condemns it as a very imprudent and un- 
fortunate conduct. He says, " The fort was full of corn 



132 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

wounded and starving Indians, on their retreat, re- 
turned, put out their fires, and sheltered themselves, 
and found some refreshment among the ashes of 
the best and strongest fortification the Indians were 
ever masters of in this country. This was the 
greatest action ever performed by the New-English 
Colonies, against the Indians ; if we regard either 
the numbers of men on each side, or the conse- 
quences of the action. Beside that, the Indians 
had now the use of guns, as well as they ; and were 
as expert in the use of them, as any men in the 
world. The Indians were soon pursued with 
famine and sickness, so that after they submitted 
the next year, they were never formidable again. 
These Narragansets do now in a manner cease to 
be a people, the few, if any, remaining in the Colony, 

and other provisions, sufficient to support the whole army 
till the spring, and there was no other provisions to be 
depended on ; there was good warm lodging for the 
wounded men, not elsewhere to be had." He supposes 
every one acquainted with the circumstances of that 
night's march, deeply laments the misery of the whole 
army, especially of the wounded and dying men. He 
adds, " That it mercifully came to pass, that Capt. An- 
drew Belcher arrived that very night at Mr. Smith's, from 
Boston, loaden with provisions for the army, who must 
otherwise have perished for want." {Church, p. 16, 17.) 
Tradition is on the same side, and supposes had the army 
kept possession of the fort, it must have in a manner 
finished the war. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 133 

being cither scattered about where the English 
will employ them, or sheltered under the successors 
of" Ninigret, a sachem that refused to join in the 
war, and so has preserved his lands to his posterity; 
and there are a few Indians now livins; round him, 
on his lands, or belonging to his tribe. 

As to the part this Colony had in that war, it 
must be observed that though the Colony was not, 
as they ought to have been, consulted, yet they 
not only afforded shelter and protection to the 
flying English, who deserted from many of the 
neighboring plantations, in Plymouth Colony, and 
were received kindly by the inhabitants, and re- 
lieved, and allowed to plant the next year on their 
commons, for their support ; but they likewise fur- 
nished some of the forces with provisions and 
transports : and some of their principal gentlemen, 
as Major Sanford, and Capt. Goulding, were in the 
action at Mount Hope, as volunteers in Captain 
Church's Company, when King Philip was slain.* 

* In the Colony's answer to the King's letter, 1679, in- 
quiring the value of Mount Hope Neck, which was beg- 
ged of the King, by Johny Crownc, the poet, they say, 
that '•' a Rhode-Island Indian, under a Rhode-Island Cap- 
tain, a volunteer, with a Plymouth Captain, killed King 
PhiHp." His name was Alderman, and Col. Church says 
he deserted the year before, from Weetamore, squaw sa- 
chem of Pocasset, and came over to Rhode-Island with his 
family, and gave good intelligence to the English at that 
time, which was ill improved or neglected. 



134 HISTORICAL DISCOUKSE, 

The Indians never landed on the Island, in the 
war time, armed boats being kept plying round, to 
break their canoes, and prevent their making any 
attempts. But our settlements on the main suf- 
fered very much, both at Petaquamscut, and at 
Warwick, and at Providence ; where the Indians 
burnt all the ungarrisoned and deserted houses. 
And the inhabitants made heavy complaints, that 
when the army of the united Colonies returned 
home, they did not leave a sufficient number of 
forces to protect our plantations, which were now, 
in a very peculiar manner, exposed to an exaspe- 
rated and desperate enemy.* 

* I know this was attempted to be excused, by the 
agents of a neighboring Colony, before the King ; and 
they had the face to assert, that "the Colony would 
never yield any joint assistance against the common 
enemy, no, not so much as in their own towns, on the 
main, nor garrison their own towns of Providence and 
Warwick, and so that the blame ought to lie on this 
government, if they suffered spoil, while the army was 
pursuing the routed enemy." But the printed histories 
confute this answer in part ; the Providence Company, 
under Capt. Andrew Edmonds, was very helpful, and 
successful too, against the common enemy, and that even 
out of our own bounds. (See Hubbard's Narrative of the 
Troubles with the Indians, p. 28. ) (See also Col, Church's 
History. ) 1 could give several reasons, why the Colony 
did not act more jointly, and why it ought not to be 
charged to their fault, that they did not. But perhaps it 
would be no service to any body now to mention them. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 135 

As King Philip had no fortified places, and no 
magazines, when the foreign succor and assistance, 
which he depended upon, failed him, when the 
Narragansets were in his own condition, and the 
Mohawks refused to assist him, his people lost all 
hope, and courage, and conduct ; being beaten oif 
from their planting and fishing, and pursued by 
famine and sickness, and divers parties of the 

However, I must say, it was not owing only to the re- 
ligious principles of the gentlemen then at the head of 
our administration. It is true, the Governor and the 
Deputy Governor, that year, were both of the people 
called Quakers, but there are military commissions still 
in being under their hands and seals, to Mr. B. Arnold, 
jun., and others, to go in an armed sloop to visit the gar ^ 
risons at Providence, &c. It was but reasonable the 
united Colonies should have left a sufficient guard, at least, 
at their own head quarters, and some other places, while- 
the Island, the only part of the Colony able to contribute 
to the charge of the wars, was at so great an expense in 
supporting and defending the distressed English, who fled 
to them from all the adjacent parts. On account of these 
and some other like aspersions, the forementioned Deputy 
Governor, in order that things might not be otherwise re- 
sented against us than they were, gave an affidavit or evi- 
dence on solemn engagement, that " he never was against 
giving forth any commissions to any, that might have 
been for the security of the King's interest in this Colony." 
This, with some commissions actually signed by him, is 
among a large number of ancient manuscripts in the pos- 
session of the Honorable William Coddington, Ksq. 



136 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

English, who had their courage raised in proportion 
as the other side were discouraged, they were 
forced to surrender ahiiost at discretion, and beg 
peace on any terms. Philip himself being slain, 
and most of the chief captains, the war wholly 
ceased in this part of the country, and with those 
nations who first began the war. 

Ever since that peace, this Colony has had little 
or nothing to do with the other Indian Avars, but 
only to assist the other Colonies, when properly 
consulted and applied to. The Colony bore its 
part cheerfully in the several expeditions against 
the French, at Port-Royal, and Canada. And di- 
vine Providence remarkably succeeded and smiled 
on the defence and protection of our sea-coasts, 
which were very much exposed all the two long 
French wars. 

The necessary defence of the inhabitants, was 
never neglected in the time of war, and, since the 
peace, the Colony, though so small as it is, hath 
rebuilt an handsome Fort on an Island that com- 
mands the harbor of Newport, and, 1733, furnished 
it with a number of fine guns, at their own expense. 
Besides, the Colony always keeps a certain number 
of smaller carriage guns and small arms, witli all 
necessaries and appurtenances in good order, ready 
to put on board one or more vessels, as occasion 
may require, on the very first notice of any enemy 



iriSTORICAL DTSCOURSE. 137 

on the coasts. And though a Lirge proportion of 
the inhahitants are not free in tlieir consciences to 
learn war, yet the military exercises are kept iij) 
as in other places, and the success which formerly 
attended the enterprises of our forces, will, while 
the memory thereof remains, keep up a military 
spirit in the body of the people. 

The Narragansets, as I observed, were the most 
populous nation among the Indians, but all at- 
tempts to civilize or christianize them were utterly 
ineffectual. Their sachems would not suffer the 
gospel to be preached to their subjects, and their 
subjects obstinately adhered to the traditions and 
customs of their forefathers. It seems hard that 
New-England should be complained of and re- 
proached as particularly negligent of the conver- 
sion of the Indians, and harder still we should be 
reproached for neglecting the methods used by the 
French to make proselytes of their Indians, and 
most unhappy that such complaints are made by 
writers that seem otherwise well acquainted with 
plantation affairs, and are deservedly of great note 
and character. It is happy, however, these re- 
proaches are not well grounded. New-England, 
nay, the Massachusetts and Plymouth Colonies 
alone, have had more real success in the conver- 
sion of the Indians, not only than all the larger 
Engli.sh Colonies to the southward, but than all 
the other Cliristian nations that have settled 
18 



138 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

throuc^hout the whole Continent of America. The 
sectaries of New-England could never be contented 
with such sort of converts as the Roman Catholic 
Missionaries boasted of in many places ; they had 
no satisfaction in the religion of the nominal 
Christians in Europe, and thought it would be no 
advantage to make such Christians among the In- 
dians, as knew no more of the gospel than to make 
the sign of the cross, or who desired baptism only, 
for the sake of the new shirt with which their con- 
version was to be rewarded. And there was very 
great opposition to the making them real Christians. 
Their sachems or princes generally, their powaws 
or priests always, opposed all their power and all 
their arts to prevent the growth of the gospel, as 
what they imagined would put an end to their au- 
thority, especially that of their priests ; and the 
customs of the people, their way of life, and their 
national vices, made it a m.ost difficult task to 
gospelize such people, as must be first civilized or 
humanized. The New-English wonder to hear 
themselves reproached, for not intermarrying with 
such barbarians, of a complexion so different ; they 
never had the temptations to the unnatural mix- 
ture, as some foreign plantations had, nor do they 
know other English plantations used to do so. 

As to this Colony in particular ; at first, the 
Narragansets made it a public interest, to oppose 
the propagation of the Christian religion. And 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 139 

though Mr. Williams made some laudable attempts 
to instruct them, yet he was much discouraged, not 
only by want of a lawful warrant, or an immediate 
commission to be an apostle to them, but especially 
by (as he thought) the insuperable difficulty of 
preaching Christianity to them, in their own lan- 
guage with any propriety, without inspiration. 
After the war, they were soon reduced to the con- 
dition of the laboring poor, without property, 
hewers of wood and drawers of water ; and there 
is no more reason to expect religion should, by hu- 
man means, thrive among such people, than among 
the lazy and abandoned poor in London. The 
few that have lived much together, on Ninigret's 
lands, have had several offers of the gospel, as 
the Narragansets had before ; and at present the 
Congregational minister at Westerly is a mis- 
sionary to them, and encouraged by an exhibition 
from the Scotch Society for propagating Christian 
knowledge, by means of an estate, mortified to 
them for this end, by the late Dr. Daniel Williams, 
of London. However, it must be owned we have 
been too soon discouraged, and too negligent in 
this affair. Perhaps it is one of tlie worst effects 
of the variety of religious opinions among the En- 
glish, that it has been some hindrance to this good 
work, and even furnished the Indians sometimes 
with an excuse or pretence to waive any offers to 
instruct them. If the manners of any have like- 
Avise prejudiced any Indians, it is most lamentable. 



14U HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

The vices of Christians have been an insurmount- 
able obstacle to the progress of Christianity in all 
the other parts of the world, as there are too many 
evidences. May these reflections, however, stir us 
up to adorn our holy religion, and to be careful 
that we give none offence to any that are without : 
And may it dispose all persons to contribute all in 
their power, to further the conversion of these 
people to the Christian religion. They demand 
our compassion, and our prayers to the throne of 
grace, that God would remove the veil from their 
eyes, and all prejudices from their hearts ; that he 
would convert and save them. 

Mr. R. Williams, at first, gave a promising 
character of the morals of these people ; but on 
longer acquaintance and more experience, he seems 
to have altered his opinion of them ; as appears by 
some expressions in a manuscript of his, yet re- 
maining. " The distinction of drunken, and sober, 
honest sachems, is (says he) both lamentable and 
ridiculous ; lamentable, that all Pagans are given 
to drunkenness ; and ridiculous, that those (of 
whom he was speaking) arc excepted. It is (says 
he) notoriously known, what consciences all Pagans 
make of lying, stealing, whoring, murdering," <fec. 
25th 6th m. 1658. 

After this account of their morals, 1 should think 
it hardly worth while to inquire what was their 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 141 

laitli and worship that had so little effect on their 
conversation, if we had not just heard what a 
scandal to Christianity the lives of too many 
Christians are. However, the faith of this people 
and their idolatrous worship, was much like the 
other Indian nations. They believed in one great 
and good god, who lived somewhere at a great 
distance in the south-west, and that the spirits of 
good men do after death reside with him. But, 
the government of the world, they seemed to think, 
left in the hands of an evil god, the devil, to whom, 
with many inferior and subordinate deities, they 
paid their chief worship, at their nicommors, or 
devilish feasts, as Mr. Williams calls them. 

The Indians in this part of America, appear to 
have been some of the least improved of the human 
species, without any learning or knowledge in any 
of the politer arts of life, even without iron and the 
improvements which depend on that. The strange 
destruction of this people, now since the wars 
ceased, and within memory, is very remarkable. 
Their insuperable aversion to the English industry, 
and way of life, the alteration from the Indian 
method of living, their laziness, and their universal 
love of strong drink, have swept them away, in a 
wonderful manner. So that there are now above 
twenty English to one Indian in the Colony. Their 
lew miserable remainders are left, as monuments 
of the anger of a righteous God, and for our warn- 



142 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

ing and instruction. While the contentions, and 
mutual animosities of the Indians in general, and 
their cursed thirst of revenge, made them a prey 
to the weak, and small number of English, we 
should learn not to bite and devour one another, 
lest we be devoured one of another, or of the judg- 
ments of God, While we have seen their iniquities 
prove their ruin, we should learn to break off from 
our sins by righteousness, and especially abstain 
from, and watch against the sins, which have been 
so evidently both the procuring causes and the 
means of their destruction. When God was con- 
ducting the Israelites to the land of Canaan, and 
driving out the inhabitants, to make room for them, 
he was pleased to warn and require them, not to 
defile themselves with the abominations of those 
nations, lest as the land then spued out its inhabi- 
tants, so it should spue out them likewise, when 
they in like manner defiled it. Though it would 
be ridiculous to compare ourselves to the Israelites, 
and the Indians to the Canaanites, in many in- 
stances, yet in this respect it may be proper to 
argue, that if we indianize in our manners and 
vices, they will in time draw down the like, or as 
heavy judgments of God, upon us, as those with 
which he hath destroyed our predecessors. God 
grant that the people, who have been overthrown 
in the wilderness may be ensamples to us, to pre- 
vent our lusting after any evils, lest we be destroy- 
ed likewise of the destrover ! 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 143 

And this brings me now, at last, to the remarks 
I promised at the beginning. And 

1. The first is, the wonderful and misearchable 
providence of God, in the whole affair of driving 
out the natives, and planting Colonies of Europe- 
ans, and churches of Christians, in the place of 
heathenism and barbarity. 

I pretend not to have known the mind of the 
Lord, or to have been his counsellor, or to be able to 
comprehend the ways of divine Providence. God's 
judgments are a great deep, but we must be wil- 
fully blind, if we cannot see that the hand of the 
Lord hath wrought this. 



*&' 



The discovery and the conquest of America, 
with the amazing desolations wrought therein, ap- 
pear a more remarkable event than any other in 
all prophane history, since the universal deluge. 
A new world, as it was justly called, discovered to 
the other, or rather to Europe, and all its riches 
and glory overturned, and given away to another 
people, and the aboriginal natives, by famine, sword 
and pestilence, destroyed and wasted away by mil- 
lions throughout all America ! Who can tell how, 
or how long it had been inhabited, and by what a 
series of iniquity, it was ripe for such a fearful deso- 
lation, such an utter destruction ! If we believe a 
Providence (and 'tis impossible we can believe 



144 HISTORTCAL DISCOURSE. 

none) we must needs think it concerned, in the 
preservation, and the punisliment of kingdoms 
and nations, and that these parts of the world, 
though separated, hid and unknown to the rest, are 
yet as near the omnipresence of God, and as much 
under his government as any other. And there- 
fore we should take notice of the wonderful provi- 
dence of God in this great affair. How should we 
learn to submit our little personal affairs to the 
Divine Providence, when we see that nations, be- 
fore Him, are but as the small dust of the balance ? 
And how justly may we say, great and marvellous 
are thy works, O Lord God Almighty ; true and 
faithful are tliy ways, and righteous are thy judg- 
ments, thou King of Saints; who shall' not fear 
thee, and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy : 
Let all nations come and worship before thee, for 
thy judgments are made manifest. The Most High 
ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth them to 
whomsoever he pleasetli. 

Again, the settlement of New-England in par- 
ticular was evidently providential, in many re- 
spects. I have mentioned often the prevailing 
motive with the people, who came first to plant and 
inhabit in this wilderness ; but the difficulties and 
discouragements in their way were really many 
and very great, so that whoever reflects the least 
upon them, " must wonder so many were carried 
out from a flourishing State, to a wilderness so far 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 145 

distant ; for (as one of them, Mr. Shepherd, of 
Cambridge — his life in the Magnalia — says) they 
were not all of them rash and weak spirited per- 
sons, inconsiderate of what they left behind, and 
were going to. It was not gain or riches they 
aimed at. When we look back (says he) and con- 
sider what a strange poise of spirit God had laid 
on many of our hearts, we cannot but wonder at 
ourselves, that so many, and some so weak and 
tender, with such cheerfulness and constant reso- 
lution, against so many persuasions of friends, and 
discouragements from the ill reports of the country, 
and the straits, and wants, and trials of God's peo- 
ple in it, yet should leave our accommodations and 
comforts, forsake our dearest relations, overlook all 
the dangers and diihculties of the vast sea, and all 
this to go into a wilderness, where we could forecast 
nothing but care and temptations, only in hopes to 
enjoy Christ in his ordinances, and the fellowship 
of his people." 

Moreover, as these people came not here for 
plunder, which drew over the Spaniards to the 
southward, neither did they settle themselves by 
force or by their own might ; but God was pleased 
to make ready a place prepared as an asylum for 
them : And since he has wonderfully driven out 
and consumed the natives by his devouring judg- 
ments, their sins have proved their punishment ; 
and their detestable vices have drawn on those 

19 



146 HISTORTCAL DISCOURSE. 

mortal sicknesses, which have wasted away all 
within the English pale, but a few who remain em- 
braced Christianity, or who, by submitting to the 
English power, remain the memorials of these won- 
derful events. It is true, the Indian jealousy and 
revenge prevented a union among their several 
clans at first, and made them instrumental in the 
destruction of one another, and the English had 
great advantages in their arms; but still the In- 
dians vastly out-nundjered them ; were more able 
to endure fatigue and hardships, hunger and travel; 
and were perfectly acquainted with their own 
country. However, a remarkable interposition of 
Providence was visible in some of the earliest, and 
other the most important enterprises against them; 
and it would be unjust not to give to God the 
glory due to his name : The Lord is King forever, 
and the Heathen are perished out of the land! 
As, therefore, God hath planted this people, and 
not their own skill or power, so neither let them 
imagine it was for their merits and deserts. We 
know not the secret and future designs of Provi- 
dence. Only let us remember, that He who 
chastiscth the Heathen, will also correct those who 
are called by his name, if they turn to folly. 

Again, it is remarkable how Divine Providence 
was pleased to supply their wants in a wilderness, 
among a people that never took care for the mor- 
row ; and to support them under the distresses 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 147 

they were tried with. At Plymouth and Charles- 
town, many died at first, for want of necessaries 
and conveniences ; but, afterwards, it was many 
years before any sickness prevailed amongst the 
planters. And though they have often since been 
visited with sore calamities, and wasting sicknesses, 
yet their numbers have continually increased to a 
very great degree; while the natives have been 
wasted away by the same diseases, and some other 
infectious distempers, from which the English have 
been providentially delivered.* I cannot help ob- 
serving, here, the very great age to which many of 
the first settlers of this Colony lived. Many of 
them, through all the difficulties and hardships of 
a new plantation, lived here near and some above 
forty years, and some above sixty.! Remarkable 

*Thus I am informed by a worthy gentleman, that an 
Indian, coming in from sea, sick of an uncommon fever, 
infected his acquaintance, and they propagated the dis- 
ease to others, and a very great mortahty ensued among 
the Indians, in Narhaganset ; while the English were 
preserved from the infection. 

f Many of the original settlers of the Colony, lived 
through all the dangers and difficulties of their new settle- 
ment, above forty years. Particularly Mr. Wm. Arnold, 
Mr. J. Greene, &c., who came up the first year with Mr. 
Williams ; Mr. Harris, Mr. Olney, &c., who came soon af- 
ter. Mr. Williams himself lived till about 1682, when he 
was buried with all the solemnity the Colony was able to 



148 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

was the care of Divine Providence in preserving: 
them from famine in a new country, where it was 
some time before they could be enabled to provide 



shew. Gov. Arnold, who came up a man grown, the first 
winter, died a few months before Gov. Coddington in 
1678. At Warwick, Mr. Weekes was slain by the In- 
dians, 1675, a very ancient man ; and Mr. Gorton, Mr. 
Holden, &c., survived the war, and some of them, many 
years. Particularly Major J. Greene, who came a youth 
to Providence in 1634-5,* and was a Commissioner for 
Providence the first Assembly after the Patent in 1647 ; 
was Deputy Governor of the Colony, 1700, as he had 
been many times before. Here at Newport, several of 
those who incorporated themselves, 1637-8, and of those 
who came to them the summer following, survived the 
Indian war. Mr. John Clark lived to the 20th of April, 
1676. Gov. Brenton died in 1674. Mr. N. Easton, who 
came, 1638, from Hampton, where he built the first En- 
glish house, as he did also in 1639 in Newport, lived to 
1675, when he died a very ancient man. His son, Mr. 
John Easton, who, as his father, was divers times Gov- 
ernor of the Colony, died 1705, in his eighty-fifth year. 
Mr. H. Bnll, one of the eighteen that incorporated them- 
selves at the first, was Governor of the Colony after the 
Revolution. Mr. Ed. Thurston, who was Assistant, 
1675, and many times Deputy for Newport, died 1706-7, 
aged ninety years. Many such instances might be given. 
And many of the second generation, such, I mean, as were 
born within the first twenty or twenty-five years, reached 

* This dato shovild be 1635-6, or as wc should now write 1636. See 
p. 73, note. — Editor. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 149 

for their comfortable subsistence. God was pleased 
to bless their provision, and satisfy his poor with 
food.* 

to fourscore, and some to ninety years. If we consider 
the long lives of so many of the first comers, notwith- 
standuig the hardships and distresses they underwent, and 
the change of climate, diet, 6cc., and to this add the great 
age of many of their children, we cannot call the country 
unhealthy, or the inhabitants short lived. The proportion 
of ancient people above seventy years of age, to the whole 
number of the present inhabitants, compared with the 
like proportion in other countries, which have been fully 
settled and inhabited above a thousand years, can be no 
good rule to judge by. Eighty years ago, the whole 
number of the inhabitants, and consequently of the births 
here, was very small, perhaps there were fewer than two 
hundred families in the whole Colony. And the number 
of inhabitants in this town has vastly increased the last 
thirty years. Let me further add, that the foresaid rule 
will not be applicable to this Colony a great while hence, 
if ever ; because so many of the natives die in the West- 
India Islands. It is certain, a very great proportion who 
die between sixteen and thirty-six, are lost at sea, or die 
in those Islands, or bring home from thence those diseases 
which soon prove fatal to them here ; though it is noto- 
rious how conducive to the recovery of health, a voyage 
from those Islands to the northern plantations is generally 
found, so that we have almost always some or other of 
their inhabitants here for that end. 

* January 22, 1639, it was found that there were but one 
hundred and eight bushels of corn to supply ninety-six 



150 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

II. Wc must remark, (however it will sound in 
the ears of many) that this Colony was a settle- 
ment and plantation for religion and conscience 
sake. The first comers came on this account ; 
their brethren may have said many hard things of 
them, in their haste ; but it is certain the first 
planters of this Colony, and Island, fled not from 
religion, order, or good govermnent, but to have 
liberty to worship God, and enjoy tlieir own relig- 
ious opinions and belief. They left England for the 
same reasons, and with the same views as the rest ; 
and they left the Massachusetts, as they thought, 
on the like account, and came here to pursue and 
effect the ends of their first removal into America. 

I know well what account the New English his- 
torians give of that set of men ; but we must re- 
member they were parties, and wrote by way of 
apology, or to vindicate themselves from tile charge 
of persecution, or error and heresy, both alike 
odious. Now if it be considered what account con- 
tending parties usually give of each other, and in 
what a light, and with what colors they usually re- 
persons : which, at the proportion of one bushel and half 
a peck to each, was not more than snliicient to supply 
them for six weeks, and yet it was then more than so 
many months to harvest. I>nt there was plenty of fish, 
and fowl, and venison ; and, soon after, even to this day, 
all the necessaries of life have been plentiful. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE, 151 

present their adversaries, no one will charge mc 
with any design to reflect on those gentlemen, whose 
memory is so highly regarded in the other New- 
English Colonies, if I beg leave to question and 
suspect the ill character they have fastened on 
those poor people, some of whom have expressed a 
deep resentment of the injury and wrong that was 
done them by the historians of the other party. 
Whoever considers the character those writers give 
of all other sects and parties of Christians, and the 
character some other parties give of them, will be 
apt to think that both sides are to be read with 
allowance for their respective prejudices. I say, 
whoever considers the character the contending 
parties of Christians almost forever give, not only 
of each other's tenets or opinions, but of their con- 
duct, especially in so far as relates to the support 
or spreading their opinions ; not only the Papists 
of the Protestants, but the Protestants of one 
another, particularly the Lutherans of the Cal- 
vinists : {Hornheck; Sumrn.) Whoever considers 
how common it is for personal reflections to mix 
with solemn debates, on the highest and most awful 
doctrines, as well as tlie least and most inditrerent: 
I say, whoever considers these things, will readily 
acknowledge we are not to take the character of 
any sect or person, barely from the description of 
known adversaries ; especially when the description 
doth itself imply many circumstances, which carry 
the strongest grounds of suspicion with them. 



152 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

If there be any tiling in that observation, " that 
the nature and import of the questions, about which 
the difference began, and the zeal wherewith they 
were handled, intimate something of the holy tem- 
per prevailing among the body of the people;" 
{3IagnaUa) I desire it may be considered, that 
those persons were in repute with the a ery best, 
for holiness and zeal, before this unhappy conten- 
tion. Moreover, it must be remembered that the 
points about which they were charged with error, 
are of such a nature, as that a person's sentiments 
may be easily mistaken and misrepresented. It 
was long before the Church at Boston could have 
any evidence of their holding those opinions, which 
that Church condemned ; the witnesses at the last 
were parties, and transported with zeal. It is 
not doubted there was some difference in their 
opinions, at least in their expressions ; but there is 
much ground to doubt, whether any of them held 
all the opinions condemned in the synod, and that 
few of them held many of those harsh consequences 
wdiich their adversaries drew from their tenets. 
Besides, much the greater number were never cen- 
sured at all, but (as I observed before) considered 
as brethren, long after their coming here. 

We cannot reasonably suppose tliat they directly 
forgot or neglected the sole end of their removal, 
but as they followed that church order they judged 
most agreeable to the will of God, and professed 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 153 

those opinions and articles of belief they thouglit 
God had revealed, so we must charitably judge, the 
life of religion and the love and fear of God did not 
go out and vanish away, on their leaving all, for 
his namesake and the gospel, i. e. the liberty to 
worship Him according to their consciences. And 
yet all the other Colonies will be obliged to own, 
that the trials and temptations of a wilderness had 
some unhappy effects on many who had shewn 
great zeal about religion. 

However, while we are contemplating the oc- 
casion of our settlement, and the ends and views 
of our pious ancestors, when we fmd that religion 
and conscience began the Colony, it is natural, it is 
necessary to reflect and consider how these ends 
are answered by their posterity at present. Our 
fathers bore the heat and burden of the day; and 
tliough Providence gave them a pleasant and 
fruitful land,* the garden of New-England, yet 

*Mr. Neale justly observes, (p. 595,) this Island, which 
is about fourteen or fifteen miles long, and about four or 
five miles broad, (though of unequal breadth,) is de- 
servedly esteemed the Paradise of New-England, for the 
fruitfulness of the soil, and the tcmperateness of the 
climate ; that though it he not above sixty-five miles 
south of Boston, is a coat warmer in winter, and being 
surrounded by the ocean is not so much affected in sum- 
mer with the hot land breezes, as the towns on the con- 
tinent." Let me add, we have, all summer, a south or 
20 



154 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

the subduing and cultivating a wilderness, was a 
tedious and a laborious business, and necessarily 
attended with many hardships, straits and diffi- 
culties. Their posterity possess the fruit of their 
labor, and should think themselves obliged to fulfil 
the pious ends of our plantation. God justly ex- 
pects that we fear the Lord our God, and love 
him, and walk in his ways, and serve him with all 
our heart. It seems that pure religion and true 
godliness is what we, in a most peculiar manner, 
owe to God, as the very quit-rents of our lands, 
and an acknowledgment of the merciful provi- 
dences in our first settlement ; as well as for the 
constant favors of God to us ever since. 

The posterity of a people, who were guided by 

southwesterly sea breeze, almost every day, which rises 
about 10 A. M., and wonderfully cools the air. And by 
reason of southeasterly sea breezes, in the spring, the 
summer does not come on so quick as at Boston, though 
the winter usually breaks up sooner. — Here let me be 
permitted to offer a correction of a vulgar error, about the 
reason of the cold of New-England winters, which is so 
very much greater than in the European countries in the 
same latitudes. The Lakes usually bear the blame of 
our cold northwest winds, but by a map of the country of 
the five nations, and of the Lakes, &c., published at New- 
York by authority, and said to be taken from a map of 
Louisiana, done by Mr. De Lisle in 1718, it appears that 
all the Lakes, except the Lake Champlain, are considerably 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. ' 155 

the providence of God to this happy Island, as a 
vsafe retreat from the stormy winds, as a place of 
freedom to practise every branch of religion in, 
must be inexcusable, if they degenerate and forget 
the God of their fathers. The very instrument of 
our original incorporation, obliges us to "serve God 
and Jesus Christ, and obey all his holy laws." Ir- 
religion, then, and profaneness and immorality, 
must be a peculiar reproach to such a people. Our 
fathers will rise up in judgment against, and con- 
demn their degenerate offspring, and the God of 
our fathers will cast us off" forever, if we do not 
practise that sobriety, righteousness and godliness, 
which his gospel requires, and we are under so 
many peculiar obligations to observe. Nay, it will 

to the westward of the northwest point, from this town. 
The chief of these vast Lakes are northwest from Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. All the great Lakes 
are west from Albany, as the Council of New- York seem 
to assert ; and Albany is, as I suppose, nearer west from 
Boston than north-west. Besides, it is credibly reported 
by intelligent persons, most conversant in those regions, 
that at the most eastern of the Lakes, the winds are 
usually easterly in those months when we are frozen with 
north-west winds. Perhaps as our distance from the 
equator occasions the long draft of winds from north-west, 
so the vast body of lands, uncultivated, and covered with 
a perpetual forest, which breaks the rays of the sun, and 
prevents their reflection from the earth, is what occasions 
those winds to be so very cold here. 



156 HISTORICAL UlSCOUKSE. 

be more tolerable for the Peqiiots, the Waiiipa- 
noags, the Narragansets, in the day of judgnieiit, 
than for such of us as obey not the gospel of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. It is true, the Indian nations 
did obstinately refuse the gospel, but they knew 
not what they did ; they did it ignorantly, and in 
unbelief, while we have known our master's w ill ; 
and to whom nmch is given, of them much will be 
required. As we have been, as it were, lifted up 
to Heaven with privileges, our fall will be so much 
the greater in the bottomless pit, unless we lay 
hold on eternal life. 

If our neighbors observe the manners of tlie in- 
habitants are reformed in any instances, formerly 
grievous to them, let us endeavor to reform what- 
ever is still really amiss among us, and put away 
the evil of our doings, that the Lord God may 
dwell among us. May we be noted only, and ever, 
for the general discharge of all public and private 
virtues, for the impartial administration of justice, 
and the steady execution of good and wholesome 
laws, and for leading quiet and peaceable lives, in 
all godliness and honesty. 

It is an old and common observation, that the 
stature and complexion* of human creatures, as 



* In like manner some diseases are peculiar to every 
country ; perhaps we may this way account for what has 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 157 

well as of plants and animals, yea, and tlie genius 
and dispositions of a people, are very much in- 
fluenced by the soil and climate ; by the situation, 
the nature and circumstances of the place they in- 
habit. Thus, the inhabitants of the several parts 
of Italy, of Germany, &c., are characterised from 
their respective countries ; and thus it was observed 
of the Carthagenians. The peculiar genius and 
dispositions of a people must arise from hence, or 
the form of government and laws they live under, 
or the genius of the present chief commanders. 
The Narragansets, who inhabited this tract of land 
before us, were not remarkable among the Indians 
for many vices peculiar to them,* only that in pro- 
portion to their greater populousness, they ex- 
ceeded in the vices common to all the Indian na- 
tions. Idleness and intemperance are every w here 
branded as Indian vices ; and they were com- 
plained of, as shamefully negligent in the education 
of their children, and that they had in a manner 

been, in vain, attempted to be accounted for so many 
other ways, viz. the defective teeth so common in New- 
England. Mr. R. Williams says, that when he first 
came here, the Indians were vastly subject to the tooth- 
ach, and that their very stoutest men complained more of 
that pain, than their women of the pains of travail. 

* Mr. Hubbard says, p. 3: " The Narhagansets were 
always more civil and courteous to the English, than any 
of the other Indians." 



158 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

no family government at all. Though the face of 
the country is greatly changed by English industry, 
and an almost immense labor and expense, yet a 
plentiful country will always afford its inhabitants 
inducements and temptations to abuse the divine 
goodness, and to turn the grace of God into wan- 
tonness. If, instead of having been able to teach 
the Indians Christian virtues, we should learn and 
imitate the Indian vices, how unhappy, how re- 
proachful, how lamentable would it be 1 Surely, 
we must think God expects more from us, with all 
our advantages of knowledge, with the gospel, the 
word of God ; which is able to make us wise to 
salvation, through faith that is in Christ Jesus. 
We have not only the light of reason, brightened 
and improved, but revelation, to be as a guide to 
us. Let us make the scriptures, then, as alight to 
our feet, and a lamp to our path. 

And in fine, let every sect and party of Christians 
among us, be followers of God as dear children. 
Let us be careful to build only gold, silver, precious 
stones, on the rock of ages, the true foundation of 
our faith and hope. Let us walk worthy of God 
to all well pleasing, and adorn the Christian re- 
ligion in general, in the sight of the Heathen ; and 
recommend our distinguishing opinions to one 
another, by a more exemplary behavior, and 
so induce others to glorify God our Heavenly 
Father. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 159 

III. Liberty of conscience was the basis of this 
Colony. Our fathers thought it just and necessary 
to allow each other mutually to worship God as 
their consciences were respectively persuaded. 
They thought no man had power over the spirit of 
God, and that the duty of the magistrate was to 
leave every one to follow the light of hi« conscience. 
They were willing to exhibit to the world, an in- 
stance that liberty of conscience was consistent 
with the public peace, and the flourishing of a civil 
Commonwealth, as well as that Christianity could 
subsist without compulsion, and that bearing each 
other's burdens was the way to fulfil the law of 
Christ. 

I do not know there was ever before, since the 
world came into the Church, such an instance, as 
the settlement of this Colony and Island. In other 
States, the civil magistrate had forever a public 
driving in the particular schemes of faith, and 
modes of worship ; at least, by negative discourage- 
ments, by annexing the rewards of honor and profit 
to his own opinions ; and generally, the subject 
was bound by penal laws, to believe that set of 
doctrines, and to worship God in that manner, the 
magistrate pleased to prescribe. Christian magis- 
trates would unaccountably assume to themselves 
the same authority in religious affairs, which any 
of the Kings of Judah, or Israel, exercised, either 
by usurpation, or by the immediate will and in- 



160 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

spiration of God, and a great deal more too. As 
if the becoming' Christian gave the magistrate any 
new right or authority over his subjects, or over 
the Church of Christ ; and as if that because they 
submitted personally to the authority and govern- 
ment of Christ in his word, that therefore they 
might clothe themselves with his authority ; or 
rather, take his sceptre out of his hand, and lord it 
over God's heritage. It is lamentable that pagans 
and infidels allow more liberty to Christians, than 
they were wont to allow to one another. It is 
evident, the civil magistrate, as such, can have no 
authority to decree articles of faith, and to deter- 
mine modes of worship, and to interpret the laws 
of Christ for his subjects, but what must belong to 
all magistrates ; but no magistrate can have more 
authority over conscience, than what is necessary 
to preserve the public peace, and that can be only 
to prevent one sect from oppressing another, and 
to keep the peace between them. Nothing can be 
more evidently proved, than '' the right of private 
judgment for every man, in the affairs of his own 
salvation," and that both from the plainest princi- 
ples of reason, and the plainest declarations of the 
scripture. This is the foundation of the Reforma- 
tion, of the Christian religion, of all religion, which 
necessarily implies choice and judgment. But I 
need not labor a point, that has been so often 
demonstrated so many ways. Indeed, as every 
man believes his own opinions the best, because 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. IGl 

the truest, and oiic^Iit cliaritably to wish all others 
of the same ophiion, it must seem reasonable the 
magistrate should have a public leading in religious 
affairs, but as he almost forever exceeds the due 
bounds, and as error prevails ten times more than 
truth in the world, the interest of truth and the 
right of private judgment seem better secured, by 
a universal toleration that shall suppress all pro- 
faneness and immorality, and preserve every party 
in the free and undisturbed liberty of their con- 
sciences, while they continue quiet and dutiful sub- 
jects to the State. 

Our fathers established a mutual liberty of con- 
science, when they first incorporated themselves : 
this they confirmed under their first Patent, and, 
at the Restoration, they petitioned King Charles II. 
( Charter) " That they might be permitted to hold 
forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing 
civil State may stand, and best be maintained, and 
that among English subjects, with a full liberty in 
religious concernments, and that true piety, rightly 
grounded on gospel principles, will give the best 
and the greatest security to sovereignty, and will 
lay in the hearts of men the strongest obligations 
to true loyalty." And the King was pleased to 
make them a grant, by which " every person may 
ever freely and fully have and enjoy his own judg- 
ment or conscience in matters of religious concern- 
ment, behaving liimself peaceably and quietly, and 
21 



162 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

not using this liberty for licentiousness and ])ro- 
faneness, nor to the civil injury or outward dis- 
turbance of others." This happy privilege we en- 
joy to this day, through the divine goodness ; and 
the experiment has fully answered, and even be- 
yond what might have been expected from the 
first attempt. The civil State has flourished, as 
well as if secured by ever so many penal laws, 
and an inquisition to put them in execution. Our 
civil oflicers have been chosen out of every re- 
ligious society,* and the public peace has been as 
well preserved, and the public councils as well 
conducted, as we could have expected, had we 
been assisted bv ever so many religious tests. 

All profaneness and immorality are punished by 
the laws made to suppress them ; and while these 
laws are well executed, speculative opinions or 

* It has been no uncommon sight to see gentlemen of 
almost every religious persuasion among us, sitting on the 
same bench of magistrates together. And we may al- 
Avays expect to see it, while that principle prevails, that 
the surest way to preserve and enjoy our Charter privi- 
leges, is so to divide the posts of honor, trust and profit 
among all persuasions indifferently ; and, in general, to 
prefer those gentlemen, of whatever religious opinions 
they are, that are otherwise best qualified to serve the 
public, and adorn their stations, and to suffer no one re- 
ligious sect to monopolize the places of power and au- 
thority. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSI^. 163 

modes of worship can never disturb or injure the 
peace of a State that allows all its subjects an 
equal liberty of conscience. Indeed, it is not va- 
riety of opiniojis, or separation in worship, that 
makes disorders and confusions in government. It 
is tlie unjust, unnatural, and absurd attempt to 
force all to be of one opinion, or to I'eign and dis- 
semble that they are ; or the cruel and impious 
punishing- those, who cannot change their opinions 
without light or reason, and will not dissemble 
against all reason and conscience. It is the wicked 
attempt to force men to worship God in a way they 
believe He hath neither commanded nor v.'ill ac- 
cept; and the restraining them from worshipping 
Him in a method they think He has instituted and 
made necessary for them, and in wliich alone they 
can be sincere worshippers, and accepted of God ; 
in which alone, they can find comfort and peace of 
conscience, and approve themselves before God ; 
in which alone, they can be honest men and good 
Christians. Persecution will ever occasion con- 
fusion and disorder, or if every tongue is forced to 
confess, and every knee to bow to the power of the 
sword : this itself is the greatest of all disorders, 
and the worst of confusions in the Kingdom of 
Christ Jesus. 

Liberty of conscience was never more fully en- 
joyed in any place, tlian here; and this Colony, 
with some since Ibrmed on the same model, have 



164 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

proved that the terrible fears that barbarity would 
break in, where no particular forms of worship or 
discipline are established by the civil power, are 
really vain and groundless ;* and that Christianity 
can subsist without a national Church, or visible 
Head, and without being incorporated into the 
State. It subsisted so for the iirst three hundred 
years ; yea, in opposition and defiance to all the 
powers of hell and earth. And it is amazing to 
hear those who plead for penal laws, and the 
nuigistrate's right and duty to govern the Church 
of Christ, to hear such persons call those early 
times the golden age of Christianity. 

However, as the best things, tlie wisest institu- 
tions are subject to some inconveniences, while 
some good may accidentally follow the very worst 
things in the world, it may be worth our while to 
consider, whether some incon\enicnces do not 
naturally, or have not in fact, followed or attended 
our constitution. The Popish Inquisition itself, 
which is such an open tyranny over conscience, 
and such an absolute destruction of the essentials 
of Christianity and all true religion, yet keeps up 

* I am aware some such charges of ignorance and bar- 
barity have been formerly insinuated, and that the people 
lived in a state of anarchy ; bnt I hope I have said enough 
to shew the groundlessness of such reports, which were 
the effects of prejudice and misinformation. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 165 

the face and slievv of the greatest decorum, order 
and liarmony imaginable. It ought not to be won- 
dered at, if an unlimited toleration of every doctrine 
or form of Christian worship, though never so just in 
itself, and so useful and beneficial in many respects, 
yet in some other respects may be attended with or 
productive of some inconveniences. We know some 
followed on the gospel itself. It cannot be wondered 
at, if some should make an ill use of this liberty; 
yea, if this liberty itself should be unhappily a 
vsnare to some men. Have never any, in no parts 
of the Colony, appeared lost and bewildered in a 
variety of opinions round them 7 At least, is it 
not likely there should be some persons so weak 
and unstable 7 Have never any pretended to think 
it needless or endless to search after truth, amonff 
so many pretenders to it? And have not some, in 
the heat and hurry of dispute about the circumstan- 
tials of Christianity, the circumstances of order, 
time, and place, grown cold or negligent about the 
vitals and essentials of the gospel covenant ? Hath 
not too much zeal about outward things, too often 
occasioned censoriousness and uncharitableness, 
and starved the life of religion 1 Is there no foun- 
dation for that character that has been given of too 
many among us, that '' they have a thorough in- 
diflerence for all that is sacred, being equally 
careless of outward worship, and of inward princi- 
ples, whether of faith or practice." And '' that 
they have worn off a serious sense of all religion.'' 



166 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

It would be no wonder if some or all these evil con- 
sequences should have followed, in some degree ; 
they have often done so in other places, even where 
there was not the like fair occasion. The tempter 
always suits his temptations to the circumstances 
of those he assaults. But these things will be no 
good objection against liberty of conscience, be- 
cause infinitely greater evils necessarily follow on 
persecution for conscience sake. 

Nevertheless, our own experience, or the obser- 
vations and reproaches of others, will dispose us to 
be peculiarly careful against all these evils, and 
some others, that our constitution may be pecu- 
liarly liable and exposed to. Here in a particular 
manner, let us be exhorted, 

1, To prevent our religious differences from be- 
ing ever carried into our civil affairs. Let them 
never make factions in government. 

2. liCt us study for peace, and to promote mutual 
love among Christians of every denomination. We 
should love all of Christ we see in them, and as 
far as possible speak the same things. On the one 
hand, we should take heed that charity and mutual 
forbearance do not sink into lukewarmness and in- 
difference to the truth of the divine institutions ; 
and, on the other hand, we should maintain our 
own opinions, and manage the defence of them. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 167 

when need requires it, with a Christian spirit of 
candor and moderation. Especially let us be 
warned by our own history, to take heed of im- 
puting to others, the consequences we think follow 
from their opinions ; if, on the account of those con- 
sequences, we cannot embrace their opinions, yet 
let us remember every man's opinion must be taken 
from his own understanding and judgment, and not 
i'rom tlie understanding and judgment of other 
men. 

It is no pleasure to any real Christian to see his 
brethren, the disciples of Jesus Christ, so divided 
as they are through the w^orld, in their opinions of 
various articles of his religion ; and much less, to 
see them so divided in their affections. Indeed ^ 
considering the finite capacity, and the corruption 
of human nature, we ought to expect a variety of 
opinions in religion, as well as in every thing else. 
But as the enemies to the cross of Christ make this, 
though unjustly, a reproach to Christianity, and as 
many Aveak persons are carried away with the 
errors of the wicked, every sincere Christian can- 
not help wishing that every stumbling block and 
rock of offence was removed out of the way, and 
that all Christians w^alked in the truth with one 
consent of heart and voice. It is a grief to a 
Christian, as it is a scandal to the whole world, to 
see Christians (so called) full of envy and malice, 
liating and reviling one another, and smiting with- 



1G8 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

the fist of wickedness. This, when all is said and 
done, is a more full and just argument, that such 
have no part in Christ, than any supposed ortho- 
doxy of opinion can he of their interest in Him. 
For by this (says he) shall all men know that ye 
are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 
It is a glorious sight to see the disciples of Jesus 
live in love and peace, and " sweetly bear wdth one 
another in their lesser differences ;" to see every 
one keeping the ordinances, as he thinks Christ 
has commanded him, and at the same time care- 
fully abstaining from all evil, and the appearances 
of evil, and practicing wliatsoever things are true, 
honest, just, and pure ; whatsoever things are lovely 
and of good report. 

When we have freedom to search the scripture, 
and liberty to believe, and profess what we find 
there revealed, how unhappy would it be, if any 
should neglect their privilege, and be fools and slow 
of heart to improve the opportunity they enjoy? 
How unhappy would it be, if any should neglect 
the worship of God and the institutions of Christ 
Jesus, because they are not enforced by human 
penal laws 1 Let us be all able ever to give an 
answer to every one that asks us a reason of the 
hope that is in us, with meekness and fear ; and let 
us lay aside all wrath, anger, malice, bigotry and 
censoriousness, and endeavor to pay a universal 
and constant regard to the will of God, revealed in 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 109 

his word. Let us be united to Christ Jesus by ii 
true and living fiiith, and let every man take heed 
how he buildeth : Other foundation can no man lay, 
than that which is laid, viz. the Prophets and 
Apostles, Jesus Christ himself being the great cor- 
ner stone. Now if any man build on this founda- 
tion, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; 
every man's work shall be made manifest. For 
the day shall declare it, because it shall be re- 
vealed by lire, and the fire shall try every man's 
work, of what sort it is. If any man's work shall 
be burnt, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall 
be saved ; yet so, as by fire. 

3. Above all things, let us unite in the practice 
of piety and holiness. Let us do justly, and love 
mercy, and walk humbly with God ; let us deny 
all ungodliness, and every worldly lust, and live 
soberly, righteously, and godly, and perfect holi- 
ness in the fear of God. These things we may do 
without any offence to any party of Christians. If 
we be followers of that which is good, who are they 
that will harm us, or be offended at us, on that ac- 
count. Each party requires all men to be redemed 
from a vain conversation; every party owns the 
necessity, if they differ in the nature of the obli- 
gation, of these duties : Let us then unite in the 
practice of them, and have our conversation as be- 
cometh the gospel, which we in common profess. 
How unha])])Y. how inexcusable, wouUI i( he. il 
22 



170 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

liberty of conscience should degenerate into li- 
centiousness, and open a door for a flood of im- 
moralities 1 If, while we plead a right to think 
and judge for ourselves, and reject all mere human 
authority in matters of faith and worship, we should 
neglect the sacred laws of God, and the unalterable 
and eternal duties of morality 1 It is certainly a 
reproach to Christians, that they can be so zeal- 
ously affected about the things which arc peculiar 
and distinguishing to each sect respectively, and 
yet be so cold and negligent of those wherein they 
all agree. It is reasonable to suppose, those doc- 
trines and duties which all agree in, are the most 
important and essential. Let us then be truly 
concerned to glorify and serve God, by a true and 
spiritual worship, and the virtues of a good life, and 
to imitate the example which the great author and 
finisher of our faith hath set us. Let us hold fast 
the form of sound words we have received, and not 
make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. 

IV. I hope I shall be excused, if on this occa- 
sion I exhort the members of this Church in par- 
ticular, to review the merciful providences of God, 
which have hitherto preserved this vine, which we 
trust his own right hand hath planted. We may 
sing of judgment and of mercy, in many sore losses 
and bereavements, in some uncomfortable conten- 
tions, and in a total failure of elders, for many 
years together. Nevertheless, the burning bush 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 171 

has not been consumed ; the Church has still sub- 
sisted, and been resettled again in peace and ^com- 
fort. Various are the storms in which this Church 
has been tossed ; but, through them all, God has 
preserved us. May we, and our successors, be as 
a name and a praise to Him, throughout all gene- 
rations ! Let us pray the Father of lights, and 
the Lord of the harvest, to revive and prosper his 
work in the midst of these years. Blay He unite 
our hearts to love Him more, and serve Him better; 
and to love one another, and strive together to 
promote his glory, and our mutual edification and 
growth in grace. May he that ministereth seed to 
the sower, both minister bread for your food and 
multiply the seed sown, and increase the fruits of 
your righteousness. 

As this was the first Society settled in church 
order on this Island, as it is the eldest, (though 
nearly the least,) let us strive to go before all others 
hi the primitive simplicity, love, integrity, and 
public spiritedness. 

Let us consider, whether we make good the 
ground of those pious and excellent Christians, who 
lirst formed this Church ; and whether the succes- 
sors of men so holy and so zealous, are not obliged 
in a singular manner to imitate them, wherein they 
followed Christ. We have professed a subjection 
to the gospel of Christ; let our lights shine before 



172 HISTOKICAL DISCOURSE. 

men, let us adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour 
in all tilings; and let us hold the beginning of our 
confidence steadfast to the end, and let us consider 
one another, to provoke unto love and to good 
works : In fine, let us contend earnestly for the faith 
and order of the gospel, once delivered to the saints; 
and, at the same time, maintain the unity of the 
spirit in the bonds of peace. Him that is weak in 
the faith receive, but not to doubtful disputations. 
And the God of patience and consolation grant us 
to be like minded one towards another, according 
to Christ Jesus. 

V. Is it not proper to remark the very great al- 
teration which the merciful providence of God has 
made, in the outward circumstances and accommo- 
dations of the inhabitants of the Island and Colony, 
^ince their first settlement here 1 

We have reason to think, the very first settlers 
did not come here empty handed ]* but as their 
stock, on which they lived, was by degrees con- 
sumed, the produce of wild lands was able to go 
but a little way in purchasing a new supply of 
many comforts of life ; and they were obliged to 
make an hard shift with such things as the present 
generation perhaps may too much despise. I do 

* Vid. Mr. Cotton's way of Congregational Churches 
rleared, p. f)l. 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 173 

not well know how to describe the difference in 
some articles, in suitable and grave expressions : 
the mention of some instances would perhaps sur- 
prise many. Let us then be thankful to God, who 
has blessed the labors of our hands ; and let us not 
wax fat and kick against God, now we have eaten, 
and are full of the mercies of the Lord. 

Nay, would it be unuseful or improper to think 
of the outward accommodations which the present 
English inhabitants enjoy, above the aboriginal 
natives, and their miserable remainders among us? 
Doubtless, it would excite our gratitude to God, 
who has made us to differ, and to say with David, 
blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our father, for 
ever and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, 
and the power, and the victory, and the majesty, 
for all that is in the heaven, or in the earth, is 
thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou 
art exalted as head above all. Both riches and 
honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all ; 
and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine 
liand it is to make great, and to give strength unto 
all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and 
praise thy glorious name ! 

VI. Lastly. As the pious people who first planted 
this Island and Colony, were so concerned about 
the best way of evidencing a man's good estate, 
mcthinks there is no more proper remark for us to 



174 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

finish with, than the duty, the wisdom, and the ne- 
cessity of every one, to get into a good estate as to 
God and the future world, and to seek after suf- 
ficient and satisfactory evidence thereof. 

I mean not to revive the old dispute ; I am well 
satisfied, the difi'erence may be compromised with 
great ease and justice ; but to persuade each of us 
to think of this article with seriousness, and suit- 
able concern. What will it signify, which of those 
ways is the most satisfactory, if we ourselves have 
no grounds for satisfaction, in either of them 1 And 
what can excuse us neglecting to work out our sal- 
vation, and make our calling and election sure, 
when God is working in us to will, and to do, of 
liis good pleasure ? Alas ! how very conmion is it 
for persons, who live under the gospel, to be very 
careless and unconcerned in this matter 1 for many 
who call themselves Christians, to presume they 
are something, when indeed they are nothing 1 and 
cry peace, peace to themselves, when they are in 
the gall of bitterness, and the bonds of iniquity, 
and have no lot or part in the Christian salvation ? 

A man's good estate consists in his being recon- 
ciled to God through Jesus Christ, who was de- 
livered for our offences, and raised again for our 
justification. Let us aim to have both the testi- 
mony of our own consciences and the spirit of God 
witnessing together with our spirit, that we are the 



HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 175 

children of God, and heirs, with Christ, to the in- 
heritance of the saints in light. And may He that 
is able, keep us from falling, and present us fault- 
less before his presence with exceeding joy. 

To conclude, should not this solemnity put us in 
mind of our mortal, transitory condition, and so stir 
us up the more to give diligence to make our call- 
ing and election sure. The generations of men are 
passing away continually. Not one person, that 
we know of, is now alive, of all those who began 
this settlement, and but few remain of the second 
generation. Death is daily preying upon us. Should 
we not then be the more quickened in the securing 
our eternal welfare ? Should we not do Avith our 
might, what our hands find to do, before the night 
of death overtakes us 7 

Let us remember we are strangers and pilgrims 
here, as were all our fathers ; and let us seek after 
a city which is to come, which hath foundations, 
whose builder and maker is God. And let us be 
followers of those who through faitli and patience 
inherit the promises. 

Let this occasion, an occasion we can never ex- 
pect again, excite us to number our days aright, 
so as to apply our hearts to true wisdom. May we 
so prepare for death and judgment, and the eternal 
world, as that an entrance may be at last ad- 



176 HISTORICAL DISCOURSE. 

ministered to us into the everlasting Kingdom of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ : Which God 
of his infinite mercy grant tlirough Him : To whom 
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honor, 
glory and power, both now and ever. AMEN. 



Note. — Tlie Editor has taken the liberty to substitute for the orthog- 
raphy of the original text, the more familiar and intelligible orthography 
of the present day, and likewise to correct the punctuation, when ne- 
cessary to render obvious the meaning of the author. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I.— [p. 54.] 

Rev. Thomas Prince, A. M., the author of the 
work alluded to, page 54, was Pastor of the Old 
South Church m Boston. He was born at Sand- 
wich, Massachusetts, May 15, 1687, and was gradu- 
ated at Harvard College, m 1707. He visited En- 
gland, in 1709, and for several years preached at 
Combs in Suffolk, where he was earnestly solicited 
to remain ; but his attachment to his native land 
induced him to return, in 1717. He was ordained 
as colleague with Dr. Sewall, his classmate, Octo- 
ber 1, 1718. He died, October 22, 1758, aged 
seventy-one. He was eminent as a preacher, and 
distinguished for his intellectual attainments and 
Christian virtues. In the opinion of Dr. Chauncey, 
no one in New-England had more learning, except 
Cotton Mather. Besides many other works, he 
published a Chronological Hlslory of JVcw-Englnnd ^ 
ill the form of annals, 12 mo. 1736, and three num- 
bers of the second volume, in 1755. The value of 
this book was not sufficiently appreciated at the 

23 



178 APPENDIX. 

time of its publication. Mr. Callender, who, in the 
opinion of the learned Dr. Eliot, was one of the first 
men of that generation, thus expresses his com- 
mendation of this book, in a letter, dated Newport, 
April 4, 1739. 

" It gives me great concern, that Mr. Prince's Chro- 
nology has been so ill received. I look on it as an honor 
to the country as well as to the author, and doubt not 
but posterity will do him justice. But that, you will say, 
is too late. Some of the very best books have had the 
same fate in other places and other ages. I need not tell 
you of Milton, Raleigh, &c. I wish, for his sake, he 
had taken less pains to serve an ungrateful and injudicious 
age, lest it should discourage his going on with his de- 
sign. I hope it will not, and hope you will encourage 
him, for, sooner or later, the country will see the ad- 
vantage of his work and their obligations to him." 



No. II.— [p. 59.] 
Ante- Cohmibian Discoveries. 

An Icelandic historian, Torfa^us, has claimed 
for his ancestors the glory of having discovered the 
new world.* A learned work has recently been 

* Torfaci Ilistoria Vinlandiaj Antiquae, Hafnio;, 1705. See Wheaton's 
History of the Northmen, p. 22-28. Belknap'ss Am. Biog. 1. 47-58. 
Examen critique dc 1' Histoire, «fcc., par Alexandre de Humbolt. 



APPENDIX. 179 

published by the Royal Society of Northern An- 
tiquaries, at Copenhagen, giving an account of the 
voyages made to America by the Scandinavian 
Northmen, during the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, 
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The ac- 
counts of these early voyages are published from 
authentic manuscripts, which date back as far as 
the tentli century. The work is entitled ^^Antiqui- 
tates Americance sive Scriptorcs Septentrionales Re- 
rimi Ante-Columhianarmn in America. Hafnicc^ 
1837." It is published in the original Icelandic, 
and is accompanied by a Danish, and also by a 
complete Latin translation. It is a work of vast 
labor and research, and is one of the most inter- 
esting and valuable publications relative to the 
history of our country, wdiich has issued from the 
press. From this work, it appears that the ancient 
Northmen explored a great extent of the eastern 
coasts of North America ; repeatedly visited many 
places in Massachusetts and Rhode-Island ; fought 
and traded with the natives ; and attempted to 
establish colonies. The most northerly region was 
called IfcUuland, (vSlatcland ;) further south 3Iark- 
kmd, (Woodland ;) and further south still, Finland, 
(Vineland,) which is supposed to have extended as 
far as Massachusetts and Rhode-Island. It is the 
opinion of the learned and indefatigable editor of 
the Antiquitatcs Americance^ Professor C. C. Rafn, 
and his erudite associate, Professor Finn Mag- 
nussen, that the celebrated inscription on the 



180 APPENDIX. 

Digliion Rock was designed as an evidence of the 
occupancy of the counlry by the Northmen. This 
learned and interesting work deserves to be tlior- 
oughly studied by every American scholar who 
feels interested in liis country's history. 

Tliat Cokimbus made a voyage to the north of 
Europe, in 1477, is evident from the following pas- 
sage, extracted by his son from one of his letters. 

''Ill the year 1477, in February, I navigated one hun- 
dred leagues beyond Thule, the southern part of which 
is seventy-three degrees distant from the equator, and not 
sixty-three, as some pretend ; neither is it included with- 
in the line which includes the west of Ptolemy, but is 
much more Avesterly. The English, principally those of 
Bristol, go with their merchandise to this Island, which 
is as large as England. When I was there, the sea was 
not frozen, and the tides were so great as to rise and fall 
twenty-six fathoms," — Hist, del Almirante, C. 4. Vid. 
living's Columbus, vol. 1, p. 44. 

The Island above mentioned as Thule, is gene- 
rally, and, we think with justice, believed to have 
been Iceland. It appears from the correspondence 
of Columbus with the learned Paulo Toscanelli, of 
Florence, which took place in 1474, that he had 
expressed his intention of seeking a western route 
to India. We think it highly probable, however, 
that the knowledge of the previous discoveries of 



APPExNDIX. 181 

the Scandinavian Northmen, obtained on his visit 
to Icehind, might have imparted to him a power- 
ful inlluence in his great enterprise. 

That America was discovered by the Northmen, 
before the time of Columbus, has long been the 
opinion of many learned men in our country. The 
following extract is contained in a letter from Dr. 
Franklin to Mr. Mather, dated London, July 7, 
1773. 



" You have," says he, " made the most of yonr argu- 
ment, to prove that America was known to the ancients. 
There is another discovery of it, claimed by the Nor- 
wegians, which you have not mentioned, unless it be 
under the words 'of old viewed and observed,' p. 7. 
About twenty-five years since. Professor Kahn, a learned 
Swede, was with us in Pennsylvania. He contended 
that America was discovered by their northern people, 
long before the time of Columbus ; which I doubting, he 
drew up and gave me, some time after, a note of these dis- 
coveries, which I send you enclosed." — Frank. Woi'ks^ 
vol. 6, p. 77. See also Forster's Hist, of Discoveries in 
the North. Robertson's Hist, of America. 

The learned Dr. Stiles, in his Election Sermon, 
published in the year 1783, speaks of" the certain 
colonization" of America " from Norway, A. D. 
1001, as well as the certain christianizing of (Treen- 
land in the ninth century." As President Stiles 



182 APPENDIX. 

was intimate with Dr. Franklin, he had probably 
seen the Avork of Torfaius, and the above account 
by Professor Kalm, 

The curious reader will be pleased to see the 
whole passage in which Dr. Stiles, expresses his 
views with regard to the peopling of America. 

"I rather consider the American Indians as Canaanites 
of the expulsion of Joshua: some of which in Phoenician 
ships coasted the Mediterranean to its mouth, as appears 
from an inscription which they left there. Procopius, 
who was born in Palestine, a master of the PhoBnician 
and other oriental languages, and the historiographer of 
the great Belisarius, tells us, that at Tangier he saw and 
read an mscription upon two marble pillars there, in the 
ancient Phoenician (not the then modern Pnnic) letter, 
" We are they who have fled from the face of Joshua the 
robber, the son of Nun."* Bochart and Selden conjecture 
the very Punic itself. Plato, ^lian, and Diodorus Siculus 
narrate voyages nito the Atlantic Ocean, thirty days west 
from the pillars of Hercules, to the Island of Atlas. This 
inscription examined by Procopius, suggests that the Ca- 
naanites, in coasting along from Tangier, might soon get 
into the trade winds, and be undesignedly wafted across 
the Atlantic, land in the tropical regions, and commence 
the settlements of Mexico and Peru. Another branch of 



* Ibi ex albis lapidibus constant columNji: du^e prope magnum fontem 
erectffi, Phoenicios habcntes characteres insculptos, qui Phoenicum lin- 
gua sic sonant: nos ii sumusqui pugerunt a facie Joshu^e pr^donis 
FiLii Nun. — Evag. hist. ecc. 1. 4, c. 18. Procop. Vandalic. 1. 2. 



APPENDIX. 183 

the Canaanitish expulsions might take the resolution of 
the ten tribes, and travel north-eastward to where never 
man dwelt, become the Tchuschi and Tungusi Tartars 
about Kamschatka and Tscukotskoinoss in the north-east 
of Asia: thence, by water, passing over from island to 
island through the northern Archipelago to America, be- 
come the scattered Sachemdoms of these northern regions. 
It is now known that Asia is separated by Avater from 
America, as certainly appears from the Baron Dulfeldt's 
voyage round the north of Europe into the Pacific Ocean, 
A. D. 1769. Amidst all the variety of national dialects, 
there reigns a similitude in their language, as there is also 
in complexion and beardless features, from Greenland to 
Del Fuego, and from the Antilles to Otaheite, which shew 
them to be one people. 

" A few scattered accounts, collected and combined to- 
gether, may lead us to two certain conclusions, 1. That 
all the American Indians are one kind of people. 2. That 
they are the same as the people in the north-east of Asia. 

" An Asiatic territory, three thousand miles long and 
fifteen hundred wide, above the 40th degree of latitude, 
to the Hyperborean ocean, contains only one million of 
souls settled as our Indians ; as appears from the numera- 
tions and estimates collected by M. Muller, and other 
Russian Academicians in 1760. The Koreki, Jakuhti 
and Tungusii living on the eastern part of this territory 
next to America, are naturally almost beardless, like the 
Samoieds in Siberia, the Ostiacs and Calmuks, as well as 
the American Indians: all these having also the same 
custom of plucking out the few hairs of very thin beards. 



184 APPENDIX. 

They have more similar usages and fewer dissimilar ones, 
than the Arabians of the Koreish tribe, and Jews who 
sprang from Abraham : or than those that subsist among 
the European nations, who s])rang from one ancestor ; or 
those Asiatic nations, which sprang from Shem. The 
portrait painter, Mr. Smibert, who accompanied Dr. 
Berkeley, then Dean of Derry, and afterward Bishop of 
Cloyne, from Italy to America in 1728, was employed by 
the grand Duke of Tuscany, while at Florence, to paint 
two or three Siberian Tartars, presented to the Duke by 
the Czar of Russia. This Mr. Smibert, upon his landing 
at Narraganset Bay with Dr. Berkeley, instantly recog- 
nized the Indians here to be the same people as the Si- 
berian Tartars whose pictures he had taken. Moravian 
Indians, from Greenland and South- America, have met 
those in our latitude at Bethlehem, and have been clearly 
perceived to be the same people. The Kamschatdale 
Tartars have been carried over from Asia to America, and 
compared with our Indians, and found to be the same 
people. These Asiatic Tartars, from whom the Ameri- 
can aboriginals derived, are distinct from, and far less nu- 
merous than, the Mongul and other Tartars which, for 
ages, under Tamerlane and other chieftains, have deluged 
and over-ran the southern ancient Asiatic empires. At- 
tending to the rational and just deductions, from these 
and other disconnected data combined together, wc may 
perceive, that all the Americans are one people — that they 
came hither certainly from the north-east of Asia ; probably 
also from the Mediterranean; and, if so, that they are Ca- 
naanites, though arriving hither by different routes. The 
ocean current from the north of Asia might waft the 
beardless Samoieds or Tchuschi from the mouth of .Tene- 



APPENDIX. 185 

sea or the Oby, around Nova Zembla to Greenland, and 
thence to Labrador, many ages after the refugees from 
Joshua might have colonized the tropical regions. Thus 
Providence might have ordered three divisions of the same 
people from different parts of the world, and perhaps in 
very distant ages, to meet together on this continent, or 
'our Island,' as the six nations call it, to settle different 
parts of it, many ages before the present accession of 
Japhet, or the former visitation of Madoc, 1001, or the 
certain colonization from Norway, A. D. 1001, as well 
as the certain christianizmg of Greenland in the ninth 
century ; not to mention the visit of still greater antiquity 
by the Phoenicians, who charged the Dighton rock and 
other rocks in Narraganset Bay with Punic inscriptions, re- 
maining to this day. Which last I myself have repeatedly 
seen and taken off at large, as did Professor Sewall." — 
President Stiles^ s Election Sei'mon, preached before the 
General Assembly of the State of Cotmecticut, at Hart- 
ford, May 8, 1783, p. 10-13. 

Ill confirmation of Dr. Stiles' views, it may be 
remarked that the aborigines of our country re- 
semble the Asiatics, especially the Tartars, more 
than the inhabitants of any other part of the world. 
They liave the same prominency of the cheek 
bones — their faces are broad at the forehead and 
narrowing to the chin. Both the Indians and the 
Tartars are accustomed to shave the head, and to 
leave only one tuft of hair to grow on the back of 
the skull. Both also worship the sun as a deity. 
We find that the aborigines were here when the 
24 



186 APPENDIX. 

Scandinavian Northmen first landed on our shores ; 
but the narratives of their voyages give no infor- 
mation concerning their origin. 

As President Stiles was for more than twenty 
years a resident and a distinguished ornament of 
Rhode-Island, a short biographical notice of him 
is here subjoined. 



Ezra Stiles, D. D., LL. D., was the son of the 
Rev. Isaac Stiles, of North-Haven, Connecticut, 
and was born December 10, 1727. He graduated 
at Yale College in 1746, with the reputation of 
being one of the most accomplished scholars it had 
ever produced. In 1749, he was chosen one of its 
tutors, and in that station he remained six years. 
He was ordained pastor of the second Congrega- 
tional Church, in Newport, R. I., the 22d of Octo- 
ber, 1755, and continued the able, dcA^oted, and 
highly esteemed minister of that Church, till he 
was elected President of Yale College, in 1777. 
He presided over that institution, with distinguished 
ability, till his death, May 12, 1795, in the sixty- 
eighth year of his age. President Stiles was one 
of the most learned men that our country has ever 
produced. As a scholar, he was familiar with every 
department of learning. He had a profound and 
critical knowledge of the Latin, Greek, French and 



APPENDIX. 187 

Hebrew languages ; in the Samaritan, Chaldee, 
Syriac and Arabic he had made considerable pro- 
gress ; and he had bestowed some attention on the 
Persic and Coptic. He had a passion for history, 
and an intimate acquaintance with the rabbinical 
writings and with those of the fathers of the 
Christian Church. Dr. Stiles maintained an ex- 
tensive literary correspondence with many eminent 
persons in remote quarters of the globe ; and his 
name was enrolled as a member of several learned 
societies in his own and in foreign countries. As 
a preacher, he was impressive and eloquent ; and 
the excellence of his sermons was enhanced by the 
energy of his delivery, and by the unction which 
pervaded them. His catholic spirit embraced good 
men of every nation, sect, and party. In the cause 
of civil and religious liberty he was enthusiastic. 
In his discourse on Christian Union, he says, 
" There ought to be no restrictions on the con- 
science of an honest and sober believer of revela- 
tion. The right of conscience and of private judg- 
ment is unalienable ; and it is truly the interest of 
all mankind to vmite themselves into one body, for 
the liberty, free exercise and unmolested enjoy- 
ment of this right, especially in religion. Not all 
the difference of sentiment, not all the erroneous 
opinions that have yet been started, afford just um- 
brage for its extinction, abridgement or embarrass- 
ment." p. 28. 



188 APPENDIX. 

The following appropriate remarks are from the 
pen of Chancellor Kent, one of Dr. Stiles' pnpils. 

"President Stiles's zeal for civil and religious liberty, 
was kindled at the altar of the English and New-England 
Puritans, and it was animating and vivid, A more con- 
stant and devoted friend to the Revolution and Indepen- 
dence of this country, never existed. He had anticipated 
it as early as the year 1760, and his whole soul was en- 
listed in favor of every measure which led on gradually to 
the formation and establishment of the American Union. 
The frequent appeals he was accustomed to make to the 
heads and hearts of his pupils, concerning the slippery 
paths of youth ; the grave duties of life ; the responsi- 
bilities of man ; and the perils, and hopes, and honors, 
and destiny of our country, will never be forgotten by 
those who heard them ; and especially when he came to 
touch, as he often did, with ' a master's hand and prophet's 
fire' on the bright vision of the future prosperity and 
splendor of the United States. Take him for all in all, 
this extraordinary man was undoubtedly one of the purest 
and best gifted men of his age. In addition to his other 
eminent attainments, he was clothed with humility, with 
tenderness of heart, with disinterested kindness, and with 
the most artless simplicity. He was distinguished for 
the dignity of his deportment, the politeness of his address, 
and the urbanity of his manners. Though he was un- 
compromising in his belief and vindication of the great 
fundamental doctrines of the Protestant faith, he was 
nevertheless of the most catholic and charitable temper, 
resulting equally from the benevolence of his disposition 



APPENDIX. 189 

and the spirit of tlie gospel." — KenVs Address delivered at 
New-Haven, before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, 1831. 
See Holmes's Life of President Stiles. 



No. Ill— [p. 59.] 

Voyage of Verrazzano to Ameiica. 

January 17, 1524, Giovanni Verrazzano, a 
Florentine, in the service of Francis I., King of 
France, sailed from a desert rock near the Island 
of Madeira, in the ship Dolphin, to make discovery 
of new countries. He steered a westerly course, 
and, after encountering a violent tempest on the 
24th of February, he arrived, about the middle of 
March, on the American coast, in latitude thirty- 
four degrees north, probably near that part of North 
Carolina on which Wilmington now stands. He 
pursued his voyage northwesterly to the shores of 
New-Jersey. The harbor of New- York attracted 
his notice for its convenience and pleasantness. 
Afterwards, pursuing his course eastward, he passed 
Block-Island, which struck him by its resemblance 
to the Island of Rhodes. Fifteen leagues more 
brought him to the spacious haven of Newport, 
where he remained for more than fifteen days. 
The natives " were the most beautiful and well be- 
haved people he had met with in all his voyage." 
On the 6th of May, leaving the waters of Rhode- 



190 APPENDIX. 

Island, the intrepid navigator sailed along the coast 
of New-England to Nova Scotia, till within nearly 
the fiftieth degree of northern latitude. See an 
able article in the North American Review, vol. 
45, p. 293. " Tlie Life and Voyages of Verrazzano" 
by George W. Greene, Esq., U. S. Consul at Rome. 
II Capitano Giovanni da Verrazzano Fiorentino 
di Normandia alia Serenissima Corona d' Francia. 
Diepa a di 8 d'Liiglio 1524. Lettera di Ferdinando 
Carli a suo Padre a Firenze. These letters have 
been copied by Mr. Greene, and presented to the 
Rhode-Island Historical Society. Hakluyt's Voy- 
ages, vol. 2, p. 295-300. 



No. IV.— [p. 79.] 

Roger Williams* was the first person in modern 
Christendom to maintain the doctrine of religious 
liberty and unlimited toleration. His " Bloody 
Tenent of Persecution for cause of conscience, dis- 
cussed between Truth and Peace," tfcc. (fcc, was 

* For an able and interesting delineation of the life and character of 
this extraordinary man, whose name deserves to be enrolled with the 
legislators of ancient times, or with the statesmen of modern Europe, see 
a " Memoir of Roger Williams," by the Rev. Professor Knowles, of the 
Theological Institution at Newton, Massachusetts ; see also " What- 
cheer, or Roger Williams in Banisliment. " A Poem, by the Hon. Job 
Durfee, Chief Justice of the State of Rhode-Island. 



APPENDIX. 191 

published in London in 1644. It is a small quarto, 
of two hundred and forty-seven pages. In this 
work he maintains the absolute right of every man, 
to a " full liberty in religious concernments," sup- 
ported by the most luminous and powerful reason- 
ing. Here are disclosed principles, which have ex- 
cited admiration in the writings of Jeremy Taylor, 
Milton, Locke and Furneau. A reply was written 
by Mr. Cotton, an eminent clergyman in Boston, 
and printed in London in 1647. Mr. Williams 
published a rejoinder, entitled " The Bloody Ten- 
ent, yet more Bloody by Mr. Cotton's endeavor to 
wash it white in the Blood of the Lamb. Of whose 
precious Blood, spilt in the Blood of his servants ; 
and of the blood of millions spilt in former and later 
wars for conscience sake, that most Bloody Tenent 
of Persecution for cause of conscience, upon a 
second trial, is found now more apparently and 
more notoriously guilty. In this rejoinder to Mr. 
Cotton, are principally, I. The Nature of Persecu- 
tion. II. The Power of the civil Sword in Spirituals,, 
examined. III. The Parliament's permission of 
Dissenting Consciences, justified. Also (as a Tes- 
timony to Mr. Clark's Narrative) is added a letter 
to Mr. Endicot, Governor of tlie Massachusetts, in 
N. E. By R. Williams, of Providence in New- 
England. London, printed for Giles Calvert, and 
are to be sold at the black-s})read-Eagle at the 
West-end of Pauls, 1652." It is a quarto volume 
of three hundred and seventy-four pages. The 



192 APPENDIX. 

same clear, enlarged and consistent views of re- 
ligious freedom are maintained in this last work, as 
in his preceding, with additional arguments, evinc- 
mg an acute, vigorous, and fearless mind, imbued 
with various erudition and undissembled piety. 

In an appendix is the following address : 

" To the Clergy of the four great Parties, professing the 
name of Christ Jesus, in England, Scotland, and Ireland^ 
viz. the Popish, Prelatical, Presbyterian, and Inde- 
pendent. 

Worthy Sirs — I have pleaded the cause of your several 
and respective consciences, against the bloody doctrine of 
persecution, in my former labors, and in this my present 
rejoinder to Mr. Cotton. 

And yet I must pray leave without offence to say, I 
have impartially opposed and charged your consciences 
also, so far as guilty of that bloody doctrine of persecuting 
each other for your consciences. 

You four have torn the seamless coat of the Son of 
God into four pieces, and, to say nothing of former times 
and tcarings, you four have torn the three nations into 
thousands of pieces and distractions. 

The two former of you, the Popish and Protestant Pre- 
latical, are brethren : so are the latter, the Presbyterian 
and Independent, But, oh, how rara est, &c ? What 
concord, what love, what pity, hath ever yet appeared 



APPENDIX. lyj 

amongst you, when the providence of the Most High and 
only wise hath granted you your patents of mutual and 
successive dominion and precedency ? 

Just like two men, whom I have known break out to 
blows and wrestling, so have the Protestant Bishops fought 
and wrestled with the Popish, and the Popish with the 
Protestant ! The Presbyterian with the Independent, 
and the Independent with the Presbyterian ! And our 
chronicles and experiences have told this nation, and the 
world, how he whose turn it is to be brought under, hath 
ever felt an heavy wrathful hand of an unbrotherly and 
unchristian persecutor. 

Meanwhile, what outcries for a sword, a sword at any 
price, on any terms, wherewith to take final revenges on 
such their blasphemous and heretical adversaries and cor- 
rivals ? 

Hence is it, that the magistrate hath been so courted, 
his person adored and deified, and his religion magnified 
and exalted. 

Amongst the people, some have thought and said, how 
hath the shining of the magistrate's money and sword 
out-shined the nobility of his person, or the Christianity 
of his conscience ? For when the person changes and re- 
ligion too, how grossly notorious have been the Clergy's 
changes also ? For instance, how have they pernified, 
tacked and turned about, (as the wind hath blown,) from 
Popery to Protestantism, from Protestantism to Popery, 
and from Popery to Protestantism again, and this within 



25 



194 APPENDIX. 

the compass of about a dozen years ; as the purse and 
sword-bearers were changed, whatever the persons of 
those Princes (male or female, men or children, or their 
consciences, Popish or Protestant) were. 

Yea, how justly in the late King's book (if his) are the 
Clergy of England charged with horrible breach of vows 
and oaths of canonical obedience to their fathers the 
Bishops, against whom, in the turn of the times and the 
sword-bearers, they turned to the Scotch Presbyters, their 
fathers' dreadful enemies and persecutors ? 

Now as to the persecuting each of other, I confess the 
wolf, (the persecutor,) devours the goat, the swine, yea 
the very fox, and other creatures, as well as the inoffen- 
sive sheep and lamb. Yet, as the Lord Jesus made use 
of that excellent fable or similitude of a wolf getting on 
a sheep's-skin, so may I not unseasonably make use of 
that of the wolf and the poor lamb coming down to 
drink upon the same brook and stream together. The 
wolf, cruel and strong, drinks above and aloft : the lamb, 
innocent and weak, drinks upon the stream below. The 
wolf questions and quarrels the lamb for corrupting and 
defiling the waters. The lamb, not daring to plead how 
easily the wolf, drinking higher, might transfer defile- 
ment downward, but pleads improbability and impossi- 
bility, that the waters descending could convey defile- 
ment upwards. This is the controversy, this the plea. 
But who shall judge ? Be the lamb never so iimocent, 
his plea never so just, his adversary the wolf will be his 
judge, and being so cruel and so strong, soon tears the 
Iamb in pieces. 



APPENDIX. 195 

Thus the cruel beast, armed with the power of the 
Kings, (Revel. 17) sits judge in his own quarrels against 
the lamb, about the drinking at the waters. And thus, 
saith Mr. Cotton, the judgment ought to pass upon the 
heretic, not for matter of conscience, but for «innii3g 
against his conscience. 

Object. Methinks I hear the great charge against the 
Independent party to be the great pleaders for liberty of 
conscience, &c. 

Answer. Oh the horrible deceit of the hearts of the 
sons of men ! And what excellent physic can we prescribe 
to others, till our soul, as Job said, come to be in their 
soul's cases ? What need have we to be more vile (with 
Job) before God, to walk in holy sense of self-insufficiency, 
to cry for the blessed leadings of the holy spirit of God, 
to guide and lead our heads and hearts uprightly ? 

For, to draw the curtain and let in the light a little, do 
not all persecutors themselves zealously plead for freedom, 
for liberty, for mercy to men's consciences, when them- 
selves are in the grates, and pits, and under hatches ? 

Doth not Gesner tell us of a gentleman in Germany, 
who, fitting his pitfall for wild beasts, found in the morn- 
ing a woman, a wolf, and a fox in three several corners, as 
full of fear, and as quiet, and desirous of liberty, one as 
well as another ? 

Thus bloody Gardiner and Bonner, (prisoners during 
King Edward's days,) yea, and that bloody Uucen Mary 



196 APl'ENDIX. 

herself, all plead the heedoin of their consciences. What 
most humble supplications, and indeed unanswerable ar- 
guments for liberty of conscience, have the Papists, when 
in restraint, presented, and especially in King James's 
time ? Yea, what excellent subscriptions to this soul- 
freedom are interwoven in many passages of the late 
King's book, if his ? Yea, and one of his chaplains, so 
called. Doctor Jer. Taylor, what an everlasting monu- 
mental testimony did he publish to this truth, in that his 
excellent discourse, of the liberty of prophecying ? Yea, 
the formerly non-conforming Presbyterian and Indepen- 
dent, Scotch and English, old and new, what most humble 
and pious addresses have they made before the whole 
world, to Princes and Parliaments, for just mercy, in true 
petitions of right, to their consciences ? But, let this 
present discourse, and Mr. Cotton's fig-leaf evasions and 
distinctions ; let the practices of the Massachusetts in 
New-England, in twenty years persecution ; and this last 
of Mr. Clarke, Obadiah Holmes, and others, be examined. 
Yea, let the Independent minister's late proposals be 
Aveighed with the double weight of God's sanctuary, and 
it will appear what mercy the poor souls of all men, and 
Jesus Christ in any of them, may expect from the very In- 
dependent's Clergy themselves. 

Object. But doth not their proposals provide a liberty 
to such as fear God, viz. that they may freely preach 
without an ordination ! and that such as are not free to 
the public assemblies, may have liberty to meet in private. 

Answer. It may so please the father of lights to shew 
them that their lines and models, and New-England's 



APPENDIX. 197 

copy also, after which they write and pencil, are but 
more and more refined images, whereby to worship the 
invisible God : and that still, as before, the wolf (the per- 
secutor) must judge of the lamb's drinking! 

For instance, New England's laws, lately published in 
Mr. Clark's Narrative, tell us how free it shall be for 
people to gather themselves into church-estate ; how free 
to choose their own ministers ; how free to enjoy all the 
ordinances of Christ Jesus, &c. But yet, provided, so 
and so, upon the point, that the civil state must judge of 
the spiritual, to wit : whether persons be fit for church- 
estate, whether the gathering be right, whether the peo- 
ple's choice be right, doctrines right, and what is this in 
truth, but to swear that blasphemous oath of supremacy 
again, to the Kings, and Queens, and Magistrates of this 
and other nations, instead of the Pope, (fcc. ? 

Into these prisons and cages, do those otherwise worthy 
and excellent men, the Independents, put all the children 
of God, and all the children of men in the whole world, 
and then bid them fly and walk at liberty, (to wit, within 
the conjured circle,) so far as they please. 

To particularize briefly : when they have in their six 
several circuits, ejected, according to their proposals, it 
may be hundreds, it may be thousands, if impartial of 
Episcopal and Presbyterian Ministers, and that without 
and against their people's consent, to the present distress- 
ing of thousands, and enraging, through such soul-op- 
pressions, the whole nation ! Then, say they, it shall be 
free for all that be able, &c., to be preachers, though not 



198 APPENDIX. 

ordained, &c. But, provided, that two ministers' hands, 
at least, which upon the point, is instead of an ordination, 
be to their approbation, &c. Upon this lock, any shall be 
free to preach Christ Jesus, upon this point of the compass, 
as I may in humble reverence, and with sorrow speak it, 
the spirit of God shall be free to breathe and operate in the 
souls of men ! By this plummet, and line, rule, and square, 
and, seeming, golden reed, and metewand, the sanctuary 
must be built and measured, &c. 

But further, if any shall be of tender consciences, and 
that the common size will not serve their foot, if they shall 
think the Independent's foundations too weak, or it may 
be too strong for their weak belief, if they cannot bow 
down to their golden image, though of the finest and 
latest edition and fashion ; why God forbid they should 
be forced to church as others, they shall enjoy their 
liberty, and meet apart in private. But, provided they 
acquaint the civil magistrate, that is, as it may fall out, 
(who knows how soon?) and too often hath fallen out, the 
poor sheep and deer of Christ must take license of and 
betray themselves unto the paws and jaws of their lion- 
like persecutors. 

Hear O Heavens, give ear Earth ! What is this but 
like the treacherous Dutchmen, who capitulate of leagues 
of peace and amity with their neighbor English, and in 
the midst of State compliments, some say out of malicious 
wrath, others say it was out of drunken intoxications at 
the best, thunder out broadsides of fire and smoke of per- 
secution ? 



APPENDIX. 199 

Object. Some possibly may say, Your just suffering 
from the Independents in New-England makes you speak 
revenges against them in old. 

Ansioer. What I have suffered in my estate, body, name, 
spirit, I hope through help from Christ, and for his sake I 
have desn-ed to bear with a spirit of patience and of re- 
spect and love, even to my persecutors. As to particulars, 
I have and must, if God so will, further debate them with 
my truly honored and beloved adversary, Mr. Cotton. 

But as to you, worthy Sirs, men of learning and men 
of personal holiness, many of you, I truly desire to be far 
from envying your honors, pleasures, and revenues, from 
whence the two former Popish and Prelatical are ejected, 
unto which the two later Presbyterian and Independent 
are advanced. Nor would I move a tongue or pen that 
any of you now possessed, should be removed or dis- 
turbed, until your consciences by the holy spirit of God, 
or the consciences of the people, to whom you serve or 
minister, shall be otherwise, than as you are yet, per- 
suaded. 

Much rather would I make another humble plea, and 
that I believe with all the reason and justice in the world, 
that such who are ejected, undone, impoverished, might 
some way from the State or you receive relief and succor: 
considering, that the very nation's constitution hath oc- 
casioned parents to train up, and persons to give them- 
selves to studies, though in truth but in a way of trade 
and bargaining before God, yet, it is according to the 
custom of the nation, who ought therefore to share also 



200 APPENDIX. 

in the fault of such priests and ministers who in all 
changes are ejected. 

I end with humble begging to the Father of Spirits, to 
persuade and possess yours with a true sense of three par- 
ticulars. 

First, Of the yokes of soul-oppression, which lie upon 
the necks of most of the inhabitants of the three nations, 
and of the whole world ; as if Cham's curse from Noah 
were upon them, servants of servants as they are, and 
that in the matters of the soul's affection unto God, which, 
call for the purest liberty. I confess the world lies in 
wickedness, and loveth darkness more than light ; but 
why should you help on those yokes, and force them to 
receive a doctrine, to pray, to give thanks, (fcc, without 
an heart ? Yea, and, in the many changes and cases in- 
cident, against their heart and soul's consent ? 

Secondly, Of the bloodiness of that most bloody doc- 
trine of persecution for cause of conscience, with all the 
winding stairs and back doors of it, ifcc. Some professors, 
true and false, sheep and goats, are daily found to differ 
in their apprehensions, persuasions, professions, and that 
to bonds and death. 

What now, shall these be wracked, their souls, their 
bodies, their purses, &c ? Yea, if they refuse, deny, op- 
pose the doctrine of Christ Jesus, whether Jews or Gentiles, 
why should you call for fire from Heaven, which suits 
not with Christ Jesus, his spirit or ends ? Why should 
you compel them to come in, with any other sword but 



APPENDIX. 201 

that of the spirit of God, who alone persuaded Japhet to 
come into the tents of Shem, and can in his holy season 
prevail with Shem to come into the tents of Japhet ? 

Thirdly, Of that hias of self-love which hails and sways 
oar minds to hold so fast this hloody Tenent. You know 
it is the spirit of love from Christ Jesus, that turns our 
feet from the tradition of fathers, &c. That sets the 
heart and tongue, and pen and hands too, as Paul's, day 
and night to work, rather than the progress and purity 
and simphcity of the crown of Christ Jesus should be de- 
based or hindered. 

This spirit will cause you to leave with joy, benefices, 
and bishopricks, worlds and lives for his sake ; the heights 
and depths, lengths and breadths, of whose love you 
know doth infinitely pass your most knowing compre- 
hensions and imaginations. There is but little of this 
spirit extant, I fear will not be, until we see Christ Jesus 
slain in the slaughter of the witnesses. Then Joseph 
will go boldly unto Pilate for the slaughtered body of 
most precious Saviour : and Nicodemus will go by day 
to buy and bestow his sweetest spices on his infinitely 
sweeter souls beloved. The full breathings of that 
heavenly spirit, unfeignedly and heartily wisheth you, 
Your most unworthy countryman, 

R. WILLIAMS/' 



26 



202 APPENDIX. 

No. v.— [p. 73.] 

Rev. WiUiarn Blackstone. 

About the time that Roger Williams came to 
Providence, Rev. William Blackstone settled in 
Cumberland, near the river which bears his name, 
about three miles above Pawtucket. He was a 
man of learning, and had received Episcopal ordi- 
nation in England. He appears to have left his 
native country, on account of his nonconformity, 
and he sought an asylum for the enjoyment of re- 
ligious freedom in the wilds of New-England. The 
precise time of his arrival in this country is un- 
known. It appears from Johnson's History, p. 20, 
that he was here in 1628 ; but not agreeing with 
Mr. Endicot and others on ecclesiastical affairs, he 
devoted himself to agriculture. When the iirst 
planters of Massachusetts arrived, in the year 
1630, they found him already quietly seated on 
the peninsula of Shawmutj now the city of Boston. 
His cottage was near a spring, on the south end of 
the peninsula. Gov. Hopkins, in his " History of 
Providence,"* says, that Mr. Blackstone had been 
at Boston " so long" (when Governor Winthrop 
and his company came) " as to have raised apple 
trees and planted an orchard." " Having escaped 
the power of the Lords Bisliops in England, and 

* His account of Providence was first published in tiic Providence 
Gazette, in 17G5. 



APPENDIX. 203 

.soon becoming" discontented with the power of the 
Lords Brethren here," he sokl his lands on the pen- 
insula, in the year 1635, and made a removal about 
the year 1636. The place to which he removed, 
was about six miles north of Mr. Williams. His 
house was situated near the east hank of the river 
which perpetuates his name, a few rods eastward 
of a knoll, which he called " Study HilV It was 
surrounded by a park, which was his favorite walk. 
His house he named " Studij HallP Here, also, he 
planted an orchard, the first that ever bore apples 
in Rhode-Island. " Blany of the trees which he 
planted, about one hundred and thirty years ago," 
says Governor Hopkins, in 1765, " are still pretty 
thrifty fruit-bearing trees. He had the first of that 
sort called yellow^ sweetings, that were ever in the 
world, perhaps the richest and most delicious apple 
of the whole kind." Mr. Blackstone used fre- 
quently to preach in Providence and other places 
adjacent. He was a man of talent, and though 
somewhat eccentric, sustained the character of an 
exemplary Christian. He died. May 26, 1675, 
having lived in New-England, about fifty years. 
His death occurred at a critical period, a few- 
weeks before the commencement of Plulip^s War. 
His estate was desolated, and his house and library 
laid in ashes, by the ruthless natives. He lies 
buried about two rods east of his favorite Study 
Hill, where two rude stones designate the place ol" 
his interment. His family here is extinct; ])ut his 



204 APPENDIX. 

name will be found on the first list of freemen of 
Massachusetts, 1630, and it is identified with the 
beautiful stream which flows through the valley of 
the Blackstone. 



No. VI.— [p. 74] 

Deed of the chief Saclicnis of Nmragansett to Roger 
Williams. 

At Nanhiggansick, the 24th of the first month com- 
monly called March, in the second year of our plantation, 
or planting at Mooshausick, or Providence : Memorandum, 
that we Caunannicus and Miantinomu, the two chief sa- 
chems of Nanhiggansick, having two years since sold 
unto Roger Williams the lands and meadows upon the 
two fresh rivers called Mooshausick and Wanaskatucket,* 
do now by these presents establish and confirm the bounds 
of those lands, from the rivers and fields of Pautuckett, 
the great hill of Neoterconkenittf on the north-west, and 
the town of Mashapauge on the west. As also, in con- 
sideration of the many kindnesses and services he hath 
continually done for us, both for our friends of Massachu- 
setts, as also at Quininkticutt and Apaum, or Plymouth ; 

* The first, of these rivers falls into the cove above Weybosset bridge 
from the north, the other from the west. 

t Neoterconkernitt is three miles from Weybosset bridge, Mashapauge 
IS about two miles south of Neotcrcorikenitt. 



APPENDIX. 205 

we do freely give unto him all that land from those rivers 
reaching to Pantuxett river, as also the grass and meadows 
upon ]\autiixett river. In witness whereof we have here- 
unto set oiu" hands. 




The mark of I . (Jaunannicus. 



The mark of Miantinomu. 

In presence of 
The mark X of Seatagh. 
The mark * of Assotemewett. 

1639. Memorandum, 3d month, 9th day this was all 
again confirmed by Miantinomu. He acknowledged this 
his act and hand [illegible] up the stream of Pautuckett 
and Pautuxett without limits we might have for our use 
of cattle. 

Witness hereof, 
ROGER WILLIAMS, 
BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

[Providence Records.] 

This deed is dated two years after the settieinent 
of Mr. Williams and his associates at Providence, 
and bears date the same day and year, with tlie 
deed of Aquetneck or the Island of Rhode-Island. 
Previous to his hanishment, he had cultivated an 
acquaintance with the natives, learned their lan- 
guage, and entered into negotiations for lands 



20G APPENDIX. 

with the sachems Canoniciis and Ousamequin, pro- 
vided he shoukl be under the necessity of settling 
among them. He had made large presents to these 
chiefs, " and therefore," says he, in one of his letters, 
" when I came, I was welcome to Ousamequin and 
to the old prince Canonicus, who was most shy of 
all English to his last breath." 



No. VII.— [p. 74.] 

Deed of Roger il'dUams to Ids twelve original as- 
sociates. 

Providence, Stii of the Sth month, 1638, 

(so called,) 
Memorandum, that I, Roger Williams, having for- 
merly purchased of Caunannicus and Miantinomu, this 
our situation, or plantation, of New-Providence, viz. the 
two fresh rivers, Wanasquatuckctt and Mooshausick, and 
the ground and meadows thereupon; in consideration of 
thirty pounds received from the inhabitants of said place, 
do freely and fully ])ass, grant and make over equal right 
and power of enjoying and disposing of the same grounds 
and lands unto my loving friends and neighbors, Stukely 
Wescott, William Arnold, Thomas James, Robert Cole, 
John Greene, John Throckmorton, William Harris, 
William Carpenter, Thomas Ohiey, Francis Weston, 
Richard Waterman, Ezekiel Holliman, and such others 
as the major part of us shall admit into the same fellow- 



APPENDIX. 207 

ship of vote with us : — As also I do freely make and pass 
over equal right and power of enjoying and disposing of 
the lands and grounds reaching from the aforesaid rivers 
unto the great river Pautuxett, with the grass and meadows 
thereupon, which was so lately given and granted by the 
aforesaid sachems to me. Witness my hand, 

ROGER WILLIAMS. 
[Providence Records.] 

Every inhabitant who was received, signed the 
following covenant : 

" We whose names are here under-written, being de- 
sirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do promise 
to submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to all 
such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good 
of the body, in an orderly way, by the major consent of 
the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated 
together into a township, and such others whom they 
shall admit unto the same, only in civil tliings.^^ 



No. VIII.— [p. 74.] 

Dqjosition of Roger Williams. 

Narragansctt, IS June, 16S2, Ut. Vul. 

I testify as in the presence of the all making and alf 

seeing God, that about fifty years since, I coming into 

this Narragansett country, I found a great contest between 

three sachems, two (to wit, Cononicus and Miantonomy) 



208 APPENDIX. 

were against Ousamaqnin on Plymonth side, I was forced 
to travel between them three, to pacify, to satisfy all their, 
and their dependents' spirits of my honest intentions to 
live peaceably by them. I testify that it was the general 
and constant declaration that Cononicus his father had 
three sons, whereof Cononicns was the heir, and his 
youngest brother's son Miantonomy (because of his youth) 
was his Marshal and Executioner, and did nothing with- 
out his uncle Cononicus' consent. And therefore I de- 
clare to posterity that were it not for the favor that God 
gave me with Cononicus, none of these parts, no, not 
Rhode-Island had been purchased or obtained, for I never 
got any thing out of Cononicus but by gift. I also profess 
that being inquisitive of what root the title or denomina- 
tion Nahiganset should come, I heard that Nahiganset 
was so named from a little Island between Puttisquom- 
scut and Musquomacuk on the sea and fresh water side. 
I went on purpose to see it, and about the place called 
Sugar-loaf Hill, I saw it, and was within a pole of it, but 
could not learn why it was called Nahiganset. I had 
learnt that the Massachusetts was called so from the Blue 
Hills, a little Island thereabout : and Cononicus' father and 
ancestors living in those southern parts, transferred and 
brought their authority and name into those northern parts 
all along by the sea side, as appears by the great destruc- 
tion of wood all along near the sea side : and I desire pos- 
terity to see the gracious hand of the Most High, (in 
whose hands is all hearts, ) that when the hearts of my 
countrymen and friends and brethren failed me, his in- 
finite wisdom and merits stirred up the barbarous heart of 
Cononicus to love me as his son to his last gasp, by 
which means I had not only Miantonomy and all the 



APPENDIX. 209 

Cowesit sachems my friends, but Ousamaquin also, who 
because of my great friendship with him at Plymouth and 
the authority of Cononicus, consented freely (being also 
well gratified by me) to the Governor Winthrop's and my 
enjoyment of Prudence, yea of Providence itself, and all 
the other lands I procured of Cononicus which were upon 
the point, and in effect whatsoever I desired of him. And 
I never denied him nor Miantonomy whatever they de- 
sired of me as to goods or gifts, or use of my boats or 
pinnace and the travels of my own person day and night, 
which though men know not nor care to know, yet the 
all-seeing eye hath seen it and his all-powerful hand hath 
helped me. Blessed be his holy name to eternity. 

R. WILLIAMS. 

September 28, 1704, I then being present at the house 
of Mr. Nathaniel Coddington, there, being presented with 
this written paper which I attest upon oath to be my fa- 
ther's own hand writing. 

JOSEPH WILLIAMS, Assistant. 

February 11, 1705. True copy of the orignal placed to 
record and examined by me. 

WESTON CLARKE, Recorder. 

[Colony Records,] 



27 



210 APPENDIX. 

No. IX.— [p. 83.] 

Biographical notice of Rev. John Clarke. 

Dr. John Clarke, the founder and first Pastor 
of the first Baptist Church m Newport, was born 
October 8, 1609. He married Elizabeth, daughter 
of John Harges, Esq., of Bedfordshire, England. 
In a power of attorney he signed, May 12, 1656, 
to receive a legacy given by his wife's father out of 
the manor of Wreslingworth in Bedfordshire, he 
styles himself, John Clarke, Physician, of London. 
It is not certainly known where Mr. Clarke was 
born, but tradition makes him a native of Bedford- 
shire. His writings evince him to have been a 
learned man. In his will he bequeaths to his dear 
friend, Richard Bailey, his Hebrew and Greek 
books ; also a Concordance and Lexicon, written 
by himself, the fruit of several years study. He 
published in London, in 1652, a book, entitled, "111 
News from New-England, or a narrative of New- 
England's persecution ; wherein it is declared, that 
while Old England is becoming New, New-England 
is becoming Old, tfcc. tfec," in which he introduced 
the substance of a tract, issued the preceding year, 
called " A Brief Discourse touching New-England, 
and particularly Rhode-Island ; as also a faithful 
and true relation of the prosecution of Obadiah 
Holmes, John Crandall and John Clarke, merely 
for conscience towards God, by the principal mem- 



APPENDIX. 211 

bers of the Church or Commonwealtli of the Mas- 
sachusetts in New-England, which rules over that 
part of the world." This tract was probably 
written by the same hand. 

In 1651, he w^as sent to England with Roger 
Williams to promote the interests of the Colony 
of Rhode-Island. Mr. Clarke remained in England, 
as agent for the Colony, till he procured the Charter 
of 1663. After his return, he was elected three 
years, successively, Deputy-Governor. But all his 
exertions to promote the civil prosperity of Rhode- 
Island, did not induce him to neglect the affairs of 
religion. He continued the esteemed pastor of the 
first Baptist Church in Newport, till his death. 
Having no children, he gave most of his property 
to charitable purposes ; the income of which was 
to be given to the poor, and to be employed for the 
interests of learning and religion. He died, April 
20, 1676, in the sixty-seventh year of his age, resign- 
ing his soul to his merciful Redeemer, and through 
faith in him he enjoyed the hope of a resurrection 
to eternal life. He left behind a wa'iting which 
evinces his sentiments to liave been those of the 
Particular Baptists. He was a faithful and useful 
minister, courteous and amiable in all the relations 
of life, and an ornament to his profession and to 
the vseveral offices which he sustained. His memory 
is deserving of lasting honor for his efforts towards 
establishing the first government in the world, 



212 APPENDIX. 

which gave to all equal civil and religious liberty. 
To no man, except Roger Williams, is Rhode- 
Island more indebted than to him. He was the 
original projector of the settlement on the Island, 
and one of its ablest legislators. No character in 
New-England is of purer fame than John Clarke. 

" all his study bent 



To worship God aright, and know his works 

Not hid, nor those things last which might preserve 

Freedom and Peace to men." — Milton, P. L. 11. 577. 



From his three brothers, Thomas, Joseph and 
Carew, are descended the large family in Rhode- 
Island bearing the name of Clarke. 



No. X.— [p. 84.] 

The following is the form of civil compact agreed 
to by the first settlers on the Island of Rhode- 
Island. 

" We whose names are underwritten do here solemnly, 
in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate ourselves into a 
body politic, and as he shall help, will submit our persons, 
hves, and estates, unto our Lord Jesus Christ, the King 
of kings and Lord of lords, and to all those perfect and 



APPENDIX. 213 

most absolute laws of his, given us in his holy word of 
truth to be guided and judged thereby." — Exod. 24. 3, 4. 
//. Chron. 11. 3. //. Kings, 11. 17. 

The first act passed under this form is dated 3d 
month loth day, 1638, and is in these words. 

" It is ordered that none shall be received as inhabitants 
or freemen, to build or plant upon the Island, but such as 
shall be received in by the consent of the body, and do 
submit to the government that is or shall be established 
according to the word of God." 

This form continued till ihe 12th of March, 1640. 
On the 16th of March, 1641, at a General Court 
of Election, 

" It was ordered and unanimously agreed upon, that 
the government which this body politic doth attend unto 
in this Island and the jurisdiction thereof, in favor of our 
Prince is a DEMOCRACY or popular government, (that 
is to say) it is in the power of the body of freemen, or- 
derly assembled, or major part of them, to make or con- 
stitute just laws by which they will be regulated, and to 
depute from among themselves such ministers as shall see 
them faithfully executed between man and man. 

" It was further ordered by the authority of this present 
Court, that no one be accounted a delinquent for DOC- 
TRINE, provided it be not directly repugnant to the 
government or laws established." 



214 APPENDIX. 

And on the 17th September following (1641) 
they passed this act. 

" It is ordered that that law of the last Court, made con- 
cerning liberty of conscience in point of doctrine, is per- 
petuated." 



No. XL— [p. 86.] 

Indian Deed of the Island of Aquet7ieck or' Aqued- 

neck.* 

The 24th of the 1st month called March in the year 
(so commonly called) 1637-8. 
Memorandum, that we Cannonicus and Miantunnomu, 
the two chief sachems of the Nanhiggansets by virtue of 
our general command of this Bay ; as also the particular 
subjecting of the dead sachem of Aquedneck and Kitacka- 
muckqut themselves and lands unto us, have sold unto 
Mr. Coddington and his friends united unto him, the great 
Island of Aquedneck, lying from hence eastward in this 
Bay, as also the marsh or grass upon Gluinunnugat and 
the rest of the Islands in the Bay, (excepting Chibachu- 
weca, formerly sold unto Mr. Winthrope, the now Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, and Mr. Williams of Providence) as 
also the rivers and coves about Kitackamiickqut and from 



* This word is also spelled Aquctlinick, Aquidncck, and Aquithneck ; 
the middle syllable was probably guttural. 



APPENDIX. 215 

thence to Paupasquash for the full payment of forty 
fathom of white beads to be equally divided between us. 
In witness whereof we have here subscribed. 

Item. That by giving by Miantunnomu's hand ten 
coats and twenty hoes to the present inhabitants, they 
shall remove themselves from off the Island before next 
winter. Witness our hands. 




The mark of j_ ^_ Cannonicus 



A 



The mark of 



Miantunnomu. 



In the presence of 
The mark M of Yotursh, 
ROGER WILLIAMS, 
RANDAL HOLDEN, 

The mark M of Assotimuit, 
The mark ^ of Mishammoh, 
Cannonicus his son. 

This witnesseth, that I, Wanamataunemet, the present 
sachem inhabitant of the Island, have received live fathom 
of wampum, and do consent to the contents. 
Witness my hand. 

The mark of T Wanamataunemet, 

In the presence of 
RANDAL HOLDEN. 



21G APPENDIX. 

McmomndLim. That I Oiisamcqiiin, freely consent 
that Mr. William Coddington and his friends united unto 
him, shall make use of any grass or trees on the main 
land on Powakasick side, and do promise loving and just 
carriage of myself and all my men to the said Mr. Cod- 
dington, and English his friends united to him, having 
received of Mr. Coddington five fathom of wampum as 
gratuity from himself and the rest. 

The mark >< of Ousamequin. 
Dated the Gth day of the 5th month 1638. 

Witness, 
ROGER WILLIAMS, 
RANDAL HOLDEN. 

A true copy pr. me, 

FRA. BRINLEY, Recorder. 

A true copy pr. me, 
WILLIAM LYTHERLAND, Recorder. 

The 11th day of May, 1639. Received by me Mian- 
tunnomu (as a gratuity) of Mr. Coddington and his friends 
united, for my pains and travel in removing of the natives 
ofT the Island of Aquedneck, ten fathom of wampum peagc 
and one broad cloth coat. 



Mian tonnomu. 



A true copy of the original entered and recorded by 
JOHN SANFORD, Recorder. 



APPENDIX. 217 

■ Dated May 14th, 1639. Received of William Cod- 
dington and his friends united unto him, in full satisfac- 
tion for ground broken up or any other title or claim 
whatsoever formerly had of the Island of Aquedneck, the 
full sum of five fathom of wampum peage and a coat. 



Weshaganasett M his mark. 



Witness, 
Miantonnomu I his mark, 



HUGH DURDAL, 

Thomas Sabery M his mark. 

A true copy of the original entered and recorded by me, 
JOHN SANFORD, Recorder. 

June 20th, 1G39. Received of Mr. William Codding- 
ton and of his friends united to him in full satisfac- 
tion of ground broken up or any other title or claim what- 
soever formerly had of the Island of Aquedneck, the full 
sum of five fathom of wampum peage. 

Wonimenatony M his mark. 
Witness, 
WM. COWLING, 
RICHARD SAWELL. 

A true copy of the original entered and recorded by me, 
JOHN SANFORD, Recorder. 

The 22d November, 1639. Received by me Mian- 
tunnomu, of Mr. William Coddington and his friends 
28 



218 APPENDIX. 

united, twenty and three coats and thirteen hoes to dis- 
tribute to the Indians that did inhabit of the Island of 
Aquedneck, in full of all promises, debts and demands for 
the said Island, as also two tarkepes. 



Mian 



tunnomu. 




Can ^"^Bso^nonicus. 



Witness, 
AMOMPOUCKE, 
WAMPAMINAaUITT. 

A true copy of the original entered and recorded by 
JOHN SANFORD, Recorder. 

[Colony Records.] 

The other seventeen joint purchasers of Aquet- 
neck, whose names are mentioned p. 84, note, ex- 
pressed their dissatisfaction that the Indian title 
to the Island of Rhode-Island stood in the name of 
Wm. Coddington, and to pacify them he executed 
an instrument of the following tenor, giving them 
an equal share with himself. 

Boston in Massachusetts Bay in New-England. — 
Whereas, there was an agreement of eighteen persons to 
make purchase of some place to the southward for a plan- 



APPENDIX. 219 

tatioii, whither they resolved to remove, for which end 
some of them were sent out to view a place for them- 
selves and such others as they should take into the liberty 
of freemen and purchasers with them, and, upon their 
view was purchased Rhode-Island, with some small 
neighboring Islands and privileges of grass and wood of 
the Islands in the Bay and main adjoining ; and whereas, 
the sale of the said purchase from the Indians hath ever 
since lain in the hands of William Coddington, Esq., 
which being a great trouble to the aforesaid purchasers 
and freemen, I, the said William Coddington, Esq., do by 
this writing promise to deliver the said deeds of the pur- 
chase, together with what records are in my hands be- 
longing to the said purchasers and freemen, into the hands 
of such as the major part of the purchasers and freemen 
shall appoint to receive them ; and do hereby declare that 
I, the said William Coddington, Esq., have no more in the 
purchase of right than any other of the purchasers or free- 
men received, or shall be received in by them, but only 
for my own proportion. In witness hereof, I have put to 
my hand this 14th of April, 1652. 

WILLIAM CODDINGTON. 

Signed in the presence of 
ROBERT KNIGHT, 
GEORGE MUNING. 

A true copy of the original entered and recorded the 
7th of April, 1673, by me, 

JOHN SANFORD, Recorder. 
|(Jolony Records.] 



220 APPENDIX. 

No. XII.— [p. 8G.] 

Deposition of William Coddingioii. 

William Coddington, Esq., aged about seventy-six 
years old, testifyeth upon his engagement that when he 
was one of the magistrates of the Massachusetts Colony, 
he was one of the persons that made a peace with Co- 
nonicus and Miantonomy in the Colony's behalf with all 
the Narragansett Indians, and by order from the authority 
of the Massachusetts a little before they made war with 
the Pequod Indians. Not long after, this deponent went 
from Boston to find a plantation to settle upon, came to 
Aquedneck, now called Rhode-Island, where was a sa- 
chem called Wonnumetonomey, and this deponent went 
to buy the Island of him ; but his answer was that Co- 
nonicus and Miantonomy were the chief sachems, and he 
could not sell the land, whereupon this deponent with 
some others went from A(piedneck Island into the Narra- 
gansett to the said sachems, Conomcus and Miantonomy, 
and bought the Island of them, they having as I under- 
stood the chief command both of the Narragansett and 
Aquedneck Island, and farther saith not. Taken upon 
engagement in Newport on Rhode-Island the 27th day of 
September 1677 before P. Sanford Assistant. 

The above is a true copy of the original, placed to 
record, examined by me February 11, 1705. 

WESTON CLARKE, Recorder. 

[Colony Records.] 



APPENDIX. 221 

No. XIII.— [p. 89.] 

For an able and an impartial account of Gorton 
and his religious opinions, the reader is referred to 
vol. 2 of the Collections of the Rhode-Island His- 
torical Society, by the Hon. William R. Staples. 
We are gratilied to learn that this gentleman is 
preparing for publication, a History of Providence. 

[p. 92.] 

For an early History of Narragansett, see vol. 3 
of the Collections of the Rliode-Island Historical 
Society, by Elisha R. Potter, Esq. This work will 
supply valuable materials for the future historian 
of Rhode-Island. 



No. XIV.— [p. 98.] 

The first Patent of Rkodc-Tsland. 

Whereas, by an ordinance of the Lords and Commons 
now assembled in Parliament, bearing date the 2d day of 
November, Anno. Dom. 1643, Robert, Earl of Warwick, 
is constituted and ordained Governor in chief and Lord 
High Admiral of all those Islands and other Plantations, 
inhabited and planted by or belonging to any his Majesty 
the King of England's subjects, or which hereafter may 
be inhabited and planted by or belonging to them, within 
the bounds and upon the coast of America. And where- 
as, the said Lords and Commons have thought fit, and 



222 APPENDIX. 

thereby ordained that Phihp, Earl of Pembroke ; Ed- 
ward, Earl of Manchester ; WiUiam, Viscount Say and 
Seal ; Philip, Lord Wharton ; John, Lord Roberts ; Mem- 
bers of the House of Peers ; Sir Gilbert Gerard, Baronet : 
Sir Arthur Haselrige, Baronet ; Sir Henry Vane, Jr., 
Knight ; Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Knight ; John Pym, 
Oliver Cromwell, Dennis Bond, Miles Corbet, Cornelius 
Holland, Samuel Vassall, John RoUe and William Spur- 
stowe, Esq'rs, Members of the House of Commons, should 
be Commissioners, to join in aid and assistance with the 
said Earl. And whereas, for the better governing and pre- 
serving of the said Plantations, it is thereby ordained, that 
the aforesaid Governor and Commissioners, or the greater 
number of them, should have power and authority from 
time to time, to nominate, appoint and constitute, all 
such subordinate governors, councils, commanders, officers 
and agents, as they should judge to be best affected, and 
most fit and serviceable to govern the said Islands and 
Plantations, and to provide for, order and dispose all things 
which they should from time to time find most fit and ad- 
vantageous for the said Plantation, and for the better se- 
curity of the owners and inhabitants thereof: to assign, 
ratify and confirm so much of their aforementioned au- 
thority and power, and in such manner and to such per- 
sons as they should judge to be fit for the better govern- 
ing and preserving of the said Plantations and Islands 
)^^^^)^^^^^^ from open violence, prejudice, dis- 
^ ^rtiflri*t ^ turbance and distractions. And 
^ ^^2 whereas there is a tract of land in the 

^212tiSVUjittt*^ continent of America aforesaid, called 
^ r 1 ?^ by the name of the Narragansett Bay, 

^ L. S. )J^ - ° ■' ' 

C^ bordering north and north-east on the 



APPENDIX. 223 

Patent of Massachusetts, east and south-east on Plym- 
outh Patent, south on the Ocean, and on the west and 
North-west, inhabited by Indians called Narrogunneucks, 
alias Narragansetts ; the whole tract extending about 
twenty and five English miles unto the Pequot river and 
country. And whereas divers well aifected and indus- 
trious English inhabitants of the towns of Providence, 
Portsmouth and Newport, in the tract aforesaid, have ad- 
ventured to make a nearer neighborhood and society to and 
with that great body of the Narragansetts, which may in 
time, by the blessing of God upon their endeavors, lay a 
surer foundation of happiness to all America ; and have 
also purchased, and are purchasing of and amongst the said 
natives, some other places, which may be convenient both 
for plantation, and also for the building of ships, supply 
of pipe-staves and other merchandize. And whereas, the 
said English have represented their desires to the said 
Earl and Commissioners, to have their hopeful beginning 
approved and confirmed by granting unto them a free 
charter of civil incorporation and government, that they 
may order and govern their Plantations in such manner 
as to maintain justice and peace, both amongst themselves 
and towards all men, with whom they shall have to do. 

In due consideration of the premises, the said Robert, 
Earl of Warwick, Governor in chief and Lord High Ad- 
miral of the said Plantations, and the greater number of 
the said Commissioners, whose names and seals are here 
under written and subjoined, out of a desire to encourage 
the good beginnings of the said Plantations, do, by the 
authority of the aforesaid ordinance of Lords and Com- 
mons, give, grant and confirm unto the aforesaid inhabi- 



224 APPENDIX. 

tants of tlic towns of Providence, Portsmouth and New- 
port, a free and absolute Charter of Civil Incorporation to 
be known by the name of Incorporation of Providence 
Plantations, in the Narragansctt Bay in New-England ; 
together with full power and authority to govern and rule 
themselves and such others as shall hereafter inhabit with- 
in any part of the said tract of land, by such a form of 
civil government as by voluntary consent of all or the 
greatest part of them, shall be found most serviceable in 
their estates and condition ; and to that end, to make and 
ordain such civil laws and constitutions, and to inflict 
such punishments upon transgressors, and for execution 
thereof so to place and displace officers of justice, as they 
or the greatest part of them, shall by free consent agree 
unto. 

Provided, nevertheless ; that the said laws, constitutions 
and punishments, for the civil government of the said 
plantation, be conformable to the laws of England, so far 
as the nature and constitution of that place will admit ,* 
and always reserving to the said Earl and Commissioners, 
and their successors, power and authority so to dispose the 
General Government of that, as it stands in reference to 
the rest of the plantations in America, as they shall com- 
missionate from time to time, most conducing to the 
general good of the said Plantation, the honor of his 
Majesty, and the service of this State. 

And the said Earl and Commissioners do further au- 
thorize the aforesaid inhabitants, and for the better transact- 
ing of their public affairs, to make and use a public seal, 
as the known seal of Providence Plantations, in the Nar- 
ragansctt Bay in New-England. 



APPENDIX. 



225 



In testimony whereof, the said Robert, Earl of Warwick, 
and Commissioners, have hereunto set their hands and 
seals, the seventeenth day of March, in the nineteenth 
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, King Charles, 
and in the year of our Lord God, 1643. 

PEMBROKE, 

SAY AND SEAL, 

PHILIP WHARTON, 

ARTHUR HASELRIGE, 

COR. HOLLAND, 

H. VANE, 

SAM. VASSAL, 

JOHN ROLLE, 

MILES CORBET, 



S.J 
S.J 
S.J 
S.J 
S.J 
L. S.J 
L. S.j 
L. S.J 
L. S.J 



Rhode-Island, ss. 

The aforegoing Charter or Patent is a true copy of the 
original entered and compared, April 10th, 1721. 

Per RICHARD WARD, Recorder. 

[Colony Records.J 



All the printed copie.s of the first Charter which 
the editor has seen, differ in several forms of ex- 
pression, from the one on the Colony Records, in 
the office of the Secretary of State, from which the 
above copy is taken. This is one special reason for 
its publication here, although it has been introduced 
into the two preceding volumes of the Collections 
of the Rhode-Island Historical Society. Tlie editor 
Would here correct a slight error whicli has dropped 
29 



226 APPENDIX. 

from the pen of Mr. Savage, in his admirable 
edition of Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 193. He says, speak- 
ing of the first Charter, " Callender erroneously 
gives the date 17th of March." The reader will 
perceive, by a reference to the above copy, that 
Callender is correct. The copies generally have 
the date 14th of March. 



No. XV.— [p. 98.] 

Mr. Williams landed at Boston, September 17, 
1644.* He brought with him the following letter 
from several noblemen and other members of the 
British Parliament, addressed " To the Right Wor- 
shipful the Governor and Assistants, and the rest of 
our w^orthy friends in the plantation of Massachu- 
setts Bay, in New-England." 

" Our much honored Friends : 

Taking notice, some of us of long time, of Mr. Roger 
Williams his good affections and conscience, and of his 
sufferings by our common enemies and oppressors of God's 
people the prelates, as also of his great industry and travail 
in his printed Indian labors in your parts,! (the like where- 

* See Savage's Winthrop, vol. 2, p. 193. 

t His Key to the Indian language here alluded to, was published in 
London, 1643. The first volume of the Collections of the Rhode-Island 
Historical Society contains an edition of this work. 



APPENDIX. 227 

of we have not seen extant from any part of America, ) and 
in which respect it hath pleased both Houses of ParHa- 
ment to grant unto him, and friends with him, a free and 
absohite Charter of civil government for those parts of his 
abode ; and withal sorrowfully resenting, that amongst 
good men (our friends) driven to the ends of the world, 
exercised with the trials of a wilderness, and who mu- 
tually give good testimony, each of the other, (as we ob- 
serve you do of him, and he abundantly of you,) there 
should be such a distance ; we thought it fit, upon divers 
considerations, to profess our great desires of both your 
utmost endeavors of nearer closing and of ready expressing 
those good affections, (which we perceive you. bear to 
each other) in effectual performance of all friendly offices. 
The rather because of those bad neighbors you are likely 
to find in Virginia, and the unfriendly visits from the west 
of England and of Ireland : That howsoever it may please 
the Most High to shake our foundations, yet the report of 
your peaceable and prosperous plantations may be some 
refreshment to 

Your true and faithful friends, 

NORTHUMBERLAND, P. WHARTON, 

ROB. HARLEY, THOS. BARRINGTON, 

WM. MASHAM, OL. ST. .JOHN, 

JOHN GURDON, ISAAC PENNINGTON, 

COR. HOLLAND, GIL. PYKERING, 

J. BLAKISTON, MILES CORBET." 



228 APPENDIX. 

No. XVI.— [p. 98.] 

Laics of Rhode- Island J 1647. 

The first election under the Charter from tiie 
Earl of Warwick, cfec, was held at Portsmouth, 
May 19th, 1647. The General Assembly then 
erected an institution of civil government, and es- 
tablished a code of laws, which is introduced with 
the following Avords. 

" For the Province of Providence, 
" Forasmuch as we have received from our Noble 
Lords and Honored Governors, and that by virtue of an 
Ordinance of the Parhament of England, a free and ab- 
solute Charter of civil incorporation, &c. We do jointly 
agree to incorporate ourselves, and so to remain a body 
politic by the authority thereof. And therefore do de- 
clare to own ourselves and one another to be members of 
the same body, and to have right to the freedom and 
privileges thereof, by subscribing our names to these 
words following, viz. 

" We whose names are here underwritten, do engage 
ourselves, to the utmost of our estates and strength, to 
maintain the authority, and to enjoy the liberty granted 
to us by our Charter, in the extent of it according to the 
letter, and to maintain each other, by the same authority, 
in his lawful right and liberty. 

And now sitli our Charter gives us power to govern 
ourselves, and such other as come among us, and by such 



APPENDIX. 229 

a form of civil government as by the voluntary consent, 
&c., shall be found most suitable to our estate and con- 
dition. It is agreeed by this present Assembly, thus in- 
corporate, and by this present act declared, that the form 
of government established in Providence Plantations is 
DEMOCRATICAL,* that is to say, a government held 
by the free and voluntary consent of all, or the greater 
part of the free inhabitants. 

" And now to the end that we may give each to other 
(notwithstanding our different consciences touching the 
truth as it is in Jesus, whereof upon the point we all make 
mention) as good and hopeful assurance as we are able, 
touching each man's peaceable and quiet enjoyment of 
his lawful right and liberty, we do agree unto, and by 
the authority abovesaid enact, establish and confirm these 
orders following." 

Among others, 

" That no person in this Colony shall be taken or im- 
prisoned, or be disseised of his lands or liberties, or be 
exiled or any otherwise molested or destroyed, but by the 
lawful judgment of his peers, or by some known law, and 
according to the letter of it, ratified and confirmed by the 
major part of the General Assembly, lawfully met, and 
orderly managed." 

This excellent code concludes with these memo- 
rable words. 

" These are the laws that concern all men, and these 

' This word is recorded in large cajiitals. 



230 APPENDIX, 

are the penalties for the transgressions thereof, which, by 
common consent, are ratified and estabhshed throughout 
the whole Colony. And otherwise than thus, what is 
herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences 
persuade them, every one in the name of his God. And 

LET THE SAINTS OF THE MoST HiGH WALK IN THIS CoLONY 
WITHOUT MOLESTATION, IN THE NAME OF JeHOVAH THEIR 

God, for ever and ever." — Colony Records. 

All emiiiet American historian* justly observes, 

" The annals of Rhode-Island, if written in the spirit of 
philosophy, would exhibit the forms of society under a 
peculiar aspect. Had the territory of the State corres- 
ponded to the importance and singularity of the principles 
of its early existence, the world would have been filled 
with wonder at the phenomena of its early history." 



No. XVII.— [p. 99.] 

Letter from O. Cro7nwell to Rliode-Tsland^ wlicn Dr. 

John Clai^ke loas agent of tlie Colony, in 

England. 

To our trusty and well beloved the President, Assist- 
ants, and Inhabitants of Rhode-Island, together with the 

* See Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 1, p. 380; a work 
distinguisliedfor research, skilful and luminous arrangement, and graph- 
ical description. 



APPENDIX. 231 

rest of the Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett 

bay in New-England. 

Gentlemen, 

Your agent here hath represented unto us, some particu- 
lars concerning your government, which you judge neces- 
sary to be settled by us here. But by reason of the other 
great and weighty affairs of this Commonwealth, we have 
been necessitated to defer the consideration of them to a 
further opportunity ; for the mean time we were willing 
to let you know, that you are to proceed in your govern- 
ment according to the tenor of your Charter, formerly 
granted on that behalf; taking care of the peace and 
safety of those plantations, that neither through any in- 
testine commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise 
any detriment, or dishonor to this Commonwealth, or 
yourselves, as far as you, by your care and diligence, can 
prevent. And as for the things which are before us, they 
shall, as soon as the other occasions will permit, receive a 
just and fitting determination. And so we bid you fare- 
well, and rest 

Your very loving friend 

OLIVER P. 

29 March, 1655. [Colony Records.] 



No. XVIII. 

From the General Assembly to the Commissioners 

of the United Colonies. 
Honored Gentlemen, 

There hath been presented to our view, by our honored 



232 APPENDIX. 

President, a letter bearing date September 25th last, sub- 
scribed by the Honored Gentlemen Commissioners of the 
United Colonies, concerning a company of people (lately 
arrived in these parts of the world) commonly known by 
the name of (Quakers ; who are generally conceived per- 
nicious, either intentionally, or at leastwise in effect, even 
to the corrupting of good manners, and disturbing the 
common peace and societies of the places where they arise 
or resort unto, &c. 

Now whereas freedom of different consciences, to be 
protected from inforcements, was the principal ground of 
our Charter, both with respect to our humble suit for it, 
as also to the true intent of the honorable and renowned 
Parliament of England in granting of the same unto us ; 
which freedom we still prize as the greatest happiness that 
men can possess in this world ; therefore we shall, for 
the preservation of our civil peace and order, the more 
seriously take notice that those people, and any other 
that are here, or shall come amongst us, be impartially 
required, and to our utmost constrained, to perform all 
duties requisite towards the maintaining the right of 
his Highness, and the government of that most renowed 
Commonwealth of England, in this Colony; which is most 
happily included under the same dominions, and we so 
graciously taken into protection thereof. And in case they 
the said people called Quakers which are here, or shall 
arise or come among us, do refuse to submit to the doing 
all duties aforesaid, as training, watching, and such other 
engagements as are upon members of civil societies, for 
the preservation of the same in justice and peace ; then 
we determine, yea and we resolve (however) to take and 



APPENDIX. 233 

make use of the first opportunity to inform our agent re- 
siding in England, that he may humbly present the mat- 
ter (as touching the considerations premised, concerning 
the aforenamed people called Quakers) unto the supreme 
authority of England, humbly craving their advice and 
order, how to carry ourselves in any further respect to- 
wards those people ( *) that therewithal there may be 
no damage, or infringement of that chief principle in our 
Charter, concerning freedom of consciences. And we 
also are so much the more encouraged to make our ad- 
dresses unto the Lord Protector his Highness and govern- 
ment aforesaid, for that we understand there are, or have 
been, many of the aforesaid people suffered to live in 
England, yea, even in the heart of the nation. And thus 
with our truly thankful acknowledgments of the honor- 
able care of the honored gentlemen Commissioners of the 
United Colonies, for the peace and welfare of the whole 
country, as is expressed in their most friendly letter, we 
shall at present take leave and rest, 

Yours most affectionately, desirous of your honor and 
welfare. 

JOHN SANFORD, Clerk of the Assembly. 
Portsmouth, March 13th, 1657-58. 

From the General Assembly of the Colony of Providence 
Plantations. 

To the much honored John Endicot, Gov. of the Massa- 
chusetts. To be also imparted to the Hond. Coms. of 
the United Colonies at their next meeting, These. 

[Colony Records.] 

' 01)litoratc(l 

30 



234 APPENDIX. 

No. XIX.— [p. 99.] 

Letter of Commissioners to Jolm Clarke. 

Worthy Sir and trusty friend, Mr. Clarke. 

We have found not only your ability and diligence, but 
also your love and care to be such concerning the welfare 
and prosperity of this Colony, since you have been in- 
trusted with the more public affairs thereof, surpassing 
that no small benefit, which formerly we had of your 
presence here at home, that we in all straits and incum- 
brances are emboldened to repair to you, for your further 
and continued counsel, care and help, finding that your 
solid and Christian demeanor hath gotten no small interest 
in the hearts of our superiors, those noble and worthy 
senators with whom you have had to do on our behalf, 
as it hath constantly appeared in your addresses made 
unto them, which we have by good and comfortable proof 
found, having plentiful experience thereof. 

The last year we have laden you with much employ- 
ment, which we were then put upon by reason of some 
too refractory among ourselves, wherein we appealed unto 
you for your advice, for the more public manifestation of 
it with respect to our superiors. But our intelhgence it 
seems fell short in that great loss of the ship, which is 
conceived here to be cast away. We have now a new 
occasion, given by an old spirit, with respect to the Col- 
onies about us, who seem to be oflended with us, because 
of a sort of people called by the name of Quakers, who 
are come amongst us, and have raised up divers who 
seem at present to be of their spirit, whereat the Colonies 
about us seem to be offended with us, being the said peo- 



APPENDIX. 235 

pie have their hbcrty amongst us, as entertained into our 
houses, or into any of our assemblies. And for the present, 
we have found no just cause to charge them with the 
breach of the civil peace, only they are constantly going 
forth amongst them about us, and vex and trouble them 
in point of their religion and spiritual state, though they 
return with many a foul scar in their bodies for the same. 
And the offences our neighbors take against us, is be- 
cause we take not some course against the said people, 
either to expel them from among us, or take such courses 
against them as themselves do, who are in fear lest their 
religion should be corrupted by them. Concerning which 
displeasure that they seem to take, it was expressed to us 
in a solemn letter, written by the Commissioners of the 
United Colonies at their sitting, as though they would 
bring us in to act according to their scantling, or else 
take some course to do us greater displeasure. A copy of 
which letter we have herewith sent unto you, wherein 
you may perceive how they express themselves. As also 
we have herewith sent our present answer unto them to 
give you what light we may in this matter. There is 
one clause in their letter which plainly implies a threat, 
though covertly expressed, as their manner is, which we 
gather to be this, that as themselves (as we conceive) 
have been much awed, in point of their continued subjec- 
tion to the State of England, lest, in case they should 
decline, England might prohibit all trade with them, both 
in point of exportation and importation of any com- 
modities, which were an host sufficiently prevalent to 
subdue New-England, as not being able to subsist ; even 
so they seem secretly to threaten us, by cutting us off 
from all commerce and trade with them, and thereby to 



236 APPENDIX. 

disable us of any comfortable subsistence, being that the 
concourse of shipping, and so of all kind of commodities, 
is universally conversant amongst themselves ; as also 
knowing that ourselves are not in a capacity to send out 
shipping of ourselves, which is in great measure occasioned 
by their oppressing of us, as yourself well knows ; as in 
many other respects, so in this for one, that we cannot 
have any thing from them for the supply of our neces- 
sities, but in effect they malcc the prices, both of our com- 
modities and their own also, because we have not En- 
glish coin, but only that which passeth among these bar- 
barians, and such commodities as are raised by the labor 
of our hands, as corn, cattle, tobacco and the like, to 
make payment in, which they will have at their own rate, 
or else not deal with us, whereby (though they gain ex- 
traordinarily by us) yet for the safeguard of their religion 
may seem to neglect themselves in that respect, for what 
will not men do for their God. 

Sir, this is our earnest and present request unto you in 
this matter, that as you may perceive in our answer to 
the United Colonies, that we fly, as to our refuge in all 
civil respects, to his Highness and honorable Council, as 
not being subject to any others in matters of our civil 
State, so may it please you to have an eye and ear open 
in case our adversaries should seek to undermine us in 
our privileges granted unto us, and to plead our case in 
such sort as we may not be compelled to exercise any 
civil power over men's consciences, so long as human or- 
ders, in point of civility, are not corrupted and violated, 
which our neighbors about us do frequently practice, 
whereof many of us have large experience, and do judge 
it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty. 



APPENDIX. 237 

Sir, the humble respects and acknowledgments of this 
Court and Colony, with our continued and unwearied de- 
sires and wishes after the comfortable, honorable and 
prosperous proceedings of his highness and honorable 
Council, in all their so weighty aflairs, departs not out of 
our hearts, night or day, which we could humbly wish 
(if it might not be too much boldness) were presented. 

Sir, we have not been unmindful of your great care 
and kindness of those our worthy friends and gentlemen 
ill that supply of powder and shot, and being a barrel of 
furs was returned in that ship, whereof Mr. Garrat had 
the command, wherein was betwixt twenty and thirty 
pounds worth of goods shipped, the Colony hath taken 
order for the recruiting of that loss, which we cannot 
possibly get ia readiness to send by this ship, but our in- 
tent is, God willing, to send by the next opportunity. 
And so with our hearty love and respects to yourself, we 
take our leave. 

Subscribed, 

JOHN SANFORD, Clerk of the Assembly. 
From a Court of Commissioners held in Warwick, this 

present November the 5th, 1658. 

[Colony Records.] 

The pci-seciition of the Quakers comniciiccd iii 
1656, and continued till September, 16G1, when an 
order was received from King Charles II. requiring 
tliat neither capital nor corporal punishment sliouki 
be inflicted on the Quakers, but that olTenders 
.should be sent to England. For an account of 



238 APPENDIX. 

these persecutions and of the acts passed against 
the Quakers, see Neal's History of New-England, 
vol. 1, 311. Hutchinson, vol. 1, 197. Hazard, 
vol. 1, 630-632. Bancroft, vol. 1, 451-458. See 
also the Quaker accounts, by Besse, Gould, and 
Sewell. 

The letter of the Commissioners to John Clarke, 
and the preceding document, reflect great credit 
upon the early settlers of Rhode-Island, and show 
how far they were in advance of the other Colonies 
and of the age in which they lived. The principles 
of religious freedom, which they clearly and con- 
sistently maintained, are now the rule of action 
adopted by all Christian sects. 

Many of the most respectable persons in the 
Colony embraced the sentiments of the Society of 
Friends, among whom was Governor Coddington, 
who died a member of that denomination. Their 
Yearly Meeting, until his death, in 1678, was held 
at his house. The first meeting house of the 
Friends was erected at Newport, in the year 1700. 
The Yearly Meeting for New-England was then 
established at that place where it has ever since 
been held. 



APPENDIX. 239 

No. XX.— [p. 99.] 

Commission to John Clarke, when in England as 
Agent f 07' Rhode-Island. 

Whereas we the Colony of Providence Plantations, in 
New-England, having a free Charter of incorporation 
given and granted unto us, in the name of King and 
Parliament of England, &c., bearing date An. Dom. one 
thousand six hundred forty-three, by virtue of which 
Charter this Colony hath been distinguished from the 
other Colonies in New-England, and have ever since, and 
at this time, maintained government and order in the 
same Colony by administering judgment and justice, ac- 
cording to the rules in our said Charter prescribed : And 
further, whereas there have been sundry obstructions 
emerging, whereby this Colony have been put to trouble 
and charge for the preservation and keeping inviolate 
those privileges and immunities, to us granted in the fore- 
said free Charter, which said obstructions arise from the 
claims and encroachments of neighbors about us to and 
upon some parts of the tract of land, mentioned in our 
Charter to be within the bounds of this Colony. 

These are therefore to declare and make manifest unto 
all that may have occasion to peruse and consider of these 
presents, that this present and principal Court of this 
Colony, sitting and transacting in the name of his most 
gracious and royal Majesty Charles the second by the 
grace of God the most mighty and potent King of En- 
gland, Scotland, France and Ireland, and all the dominions 
and territories thereunto belongmg, &c. Do by these 
presents make, ordain and constitute, desire, authorize 



240 APPENDIX. 

and appoint, our trusty and well beloved friend, Mr. John 
Clarke, physician, one of the members of this Colony, late 
inhabitant of Rhode-Island, in the same Colony, and now 
residing in Westminster, our undoubted agent and at- 
torney, to all intents and purposes, lawfully tending unto 
the preservation of all and singular the privileges, liberties, 
boundaries and immunities of this Colony, as according un- 
to the true intent and meaning of all contained in our said 
Charter, against all unlawful usurpations, intrusions and 
claims, of any person or persons, on any pretences, or by 
any combination whatsoever, not doubting but the same 
gracious hand of Providence, which moved the most po- 
tent and royal power abovesaid to give and grant us the 
abovesaid free Charter, will also still continue to preserve 
us, in our just rights and privileges, by the gracious favor 
of the power and royal Majesty abovesaid, whereunto we 
acknowledge all humble submission and loyal subjec- 
tion, &c. 

Given in the twelfth year of the reign of our Sovereign 
Lord, Charles the second. King of England, Scotland, 
France and Ireland, &c., at the General Court holden 
for the colony of Providence Plantations, at Warwick^ 
the ISth day of October An: Dom. IGGO. 

To our trusty and well beloved friend and agent, Mr. 
John Clarke of Rhode-Island, Physician, now residing 
in London or Westminster. 

Ordered to be subscribed by the General Recorder, with 
the seal of the Colony annexed. 

[Colony Records.] 



APPENDIX. 241 

No. XXI.— [p. 100.] 

The Charter granted by King Charles II., July 8, 

1663. 

Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of En- 
gland, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the 
Faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, 
greeting: Whereas, we have been informed, by the hum- 
ble petition of our trusty and well beloved subject, John 
Clarke, on the behalf of Benjamin Arnold, William Bren- 
ton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, William Boul- 
ston, John Porter, John Smith, Samuel Gorton, John 
Weeks, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, 
John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Randall Holden, John 
Greene, John Roome. Samuel Wildbore, William Field, 
James Barker, Richard Tew, Thomas Harris, and William 
Dyre, and the rest of the purchasers and free inhabitants 
of our Island called Rhode-Island, and the rest of the 
Colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narragansctt Bay, 
in New-England, in America, that they, pursuing, with 
peaceable and loyal minds, their sober, serious and re- 
ligious intentions, of godly edifying themselves, and one 
another, in the holy Christian faith and worship, as they 
were persuaded ; together with the gaining over and con- 
version of the poor ignorant Indian natives, in those parts 
of America, to the sincere profession and obedience of the 
same faith and worship, did, not only by the consent and 
good encouragement of our royal progenitors, transport 
themselves out of this kingdom of England into America ; 
but also, since their arrival there, after their first settle- 
ment amongst other our subjects in those parts, for the 

31 



242 APPENDIX. 

avoiding of discord, and those many evils which were 
likely to ensue upon some of those our subjects not being 
able to bear, in these remote parts, their different appre- 
hensions in religions concernments, and in pursuance of 
the aforesaid ends, did once again leave their desirable 
stations and habitations, and with excessive labor and 
travel, hazard and charge, did transplant themselves into 
the midst of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, 
are the most potent princes and people of all that country; 
where, by the good Providence of God, from whom the 
Plantations have taken their name, upon their labor and 
industry, they have not only been preserved to admiration, 
but have increased and prospered, and are seized and pos- 
sessed, by purchase and consent of the said natives, to 
their full content, of such lands, islands, rivers, harbors 
and roads, as are very convenient, both for plantations, 
and also for building of ships, supply of pipe-staves, and 
other merchandise ; and which lie very commodious, in 
many respects, for commerce, and to accommodate our 
southern plantations, and may much advance the trade of 
this our realm, and greatly enlarge the territories thereof; 
they having, by near neighborhood to, and friendly society 
with, the great body of the -Xarragansett Indians, given 
them encouragement, of their own accord, to subject 
themselves, their people and lands, unto us; whereby, as 
is hoped, there may, in time, by the blessing of God upon 
their endeavors, be laid a sure foundation of happiness to 
all America: And whereas, in their humble address, they 
have freely declared, that it is much on their hearts (if 
they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, 
that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be 
maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a 



APPENDIX. 243 

full liberty in religious concernments ; and that true piety, 
rightly grounded upon gospel principles, will give the 
best and greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in 
the hearts of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty: 
Now know ye, that we, being willing to encourage the 
hopeful undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, 
and to secure them in the free exercise and enjoyment of 
all their civil and religions rights, appertaining to them, 
as our loviug subjects; and to preserve nnto them that 
liberty, in the true Christian faith and worship of God, 
which they have sought with so much travel, and Avith 
peaceable minds, and loyal subjection to our royal pro- 
genitors and ourselves, to enjoy ; and because some of 
the people and inhabitants of the same Colony cannot, in 
their private opinions, conform to the public exercise of 
religion, according to the liturgy, forms and ceremonies 
of the Church of England, or take or subscribe the oaths 
and articles made and established in that behalf; and for 
that the same, by reason of the remote distances of those 
places, will (as we hope) be no breach of the unity and 
uniformity established in this nation : Have therefore 
thought fit, and do hereby publish, grant, ordain and de- 
clare, That our royal will and pleasure is, that no person 
within the said Colony, at any time hereafter, shall be any 
wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, 
for any differences in opinion in matters of religion, and 
do not actually disturb the civil peace of our said Colony ; 
but that all and every person and persons may, from time 
to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully have 
and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences, 
in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract 
of land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves 



244 APPENDIX. 

peaceably and quietly, and not using this liberty to li- 
centiousness and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or 
outward disturbance of others ; any law, statute, or clause 
therein contained, or to be contained, usage or custom of 
this realm, to the contrary hereof, in any wise, notwith- 
standing. And that they may be in the better capacity 
to defend themselves, in their just rights and liberties, 
against all the enemies of the Christian faith, and others, 
in all respects, wc have further thought fit, and at the 
humble petition of the persons aforesaid are graciously 
pleased to declare, That they shall have and enjoy the 
benefit of our late act of indemnity and free pardon, as 
the rest of our subjects in other our dominions and terri- 
tories have ; and to create and make them a body politic 
or corporate, with the powers and privileges hereinafter 
mentioned. And accordingly our will and pleasure is, 
and of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere 
motion, we have ordained, constituted and declared, and 
by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do or- 
dain, constitute and declare. That they, the said William 
Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, Benedict 
Arnold, William Boulston, John Porter, Samuel Gorton, 
John Smith, John Weeks, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, 
Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, Ran- 
dall Holden, John Greene, John Roome, William Dyre, 
Samuel Wildbore, Richard Tew, William Field, Thomas 
Harris, James Barker, Rainsborrow, Wil- 
liams, and John Nickson, and all such others as now are, 
or hereafter shall be, admitted and made free of the com- 
pany and society of our Colony of Providence Plantations, 
in the Narragansctt Bay, in New-England, shall be, from 
time to time, and forever hereafter, a body corporate and 



APPENDIX. 245 

politic, ill fact and name, by the name of Tlie Governor 
and Company of the English Colony of Rliode-Island 
and Providence Plantations, in New-England, in Ameri- 
ca ; and that, by the same name, they and their successors 
shall and may have perpetual succession, and shall and 
may be persons able and capable, in the law, to sue and 
be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to answer and be 
answered unto, to defend and to be defended, in all and sin- 
gular suits, causes, quarrels, matters, actions and things, 
of what kind or nature soever ,■ and also to have, take, 
possess, acquire and purchase, lands, tenements or here- 
ditaments, or any goods or chattels, and the same to lease, 
grant, demise, aliene, bargain, sell and dispose of, at their 
own will and pleasure, as other our liege people, of this 
our realm of England, or any corporation or body politic 
within the same, may lawfully do. And further, that 
they the said Governor and Company, and their succes- 
sors, shall and may, forever hereafter, have a common 
seal, to serve and use for all matters, causes, things and 
affairs, whatsoever, of them and their successors ; and 
the same seal to alter, change, break, and make new, from 
time to time, at their will and pleasure, as they shall think 
fit. And further, we will and ordain, and by these 
presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do declare and 
appoint, that, for the better ordering and managing of the 
affairs and business of the said Company, and their suc- 
cessors, there shall be one Governor, one Deputy-Gov- 
ernor, and ten Assistants, to be, from time to time, con- 
stituted, elected and chosen, out of the freemen of the 
said Company, for the time being, in such manner and 
form as is hereafter in these presents expressed ; which 
said oflicers shall a})j)ly themselves to take care for the 



246 APPENDIX. 

best disposing and ordering of the general business and 
affairs of and concerning the lands and hereditaments 
hereinafter mentioned to be granted, and the plantation 
thereof, and the government of the people there. And, 
for the better execution of our royal pleasure herein, Ave 
do, for us, our heirs and successors, assign, name, con- 
stitute and appoint the aforesaid Benedict Arnold to be 
the first and present Governor of the said Company, and 
the said William Brenton to be the Deputy-Governor, and 
the said William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Williams, 
Thomas Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Cogges- 
hall, James Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, 
to be the ten present Assistants of the said Company, to 
continue in the said several offices, respectively, until the 
first Wednesday which shall be in the month of May 
now next coming. And further, we will, and by these 
presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do ordain and 
grant, that the Governor of the said Company, for the 
time being, or, in his absence, by occasion of sickness, or 
otherwise, by his leave and permission, the Deputy-Gov- 
ernor, for the time being, shall and may, from time to 
time, upon all occasions, give order for the assembling of 
the said Company, and calling them together, to consult 
and advise of the business and affairs of the said Company. 
And that forever hereafter, twice in every year, that is to 
say, on every first Wednesday in the month of May, and 
on every last Wednesday in October, or oftcner, in case 
it shall be requisite, the Assistants, and such of the free- 
men of the said Company, not exceeding six persons for 
Newport, four persons for each of the respective towns of 
Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick, and two persons 
for each other place, town or city, who shall be, from time 



APPENDIX. 247 

to time, thereunto elected or deputed by the major part 
of the freemen of the respective towns or places for which 
they shall be so elected or deputed, shall have a general 
meeting or assembly, then and there to consult, advise 
and determine, in and about the affairs and business of the 
said Company and Plantations. And further, we do, of 
our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, 
give and grant unto the said Governor and Company of 
the English Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence 
Plantations, in New-England, in America, and their suc- 
cessors, that the Governor, or, in his absence, or by his 
permission, the Deputy-Governor of the said Company, 
for the time being, the Assistants, and such of the free- 
men of the said Company as shall be so as aforesaid elected 
or deputed, or so many of them as shall be present at such 
meeting or assembly, as aforesaid, shall be called the 
General Assembly ; and that they, or the greatest part of 
them then present, whereof the Governor or Deputy-Gov- 
ernor, and six of the Assistants, at least to be seven, shall 
have, and have hereby given and granted unto them, full 
power and authority, from time to time, and at all times 
hereafter, to appoint, alter and change, such days, times 
and places of meeting and General Assembly, as they 
shall think fit ; and to choose, nominate and appoint, such 
and so many other persons as they shall think fit, and 
shall be Avilling to accept the same, to be free of the said 
Company and body politic, and them into the same to 
admit ; and to elect and constitute such offices and officers, 
and to grant such needful commissions, as they shall think 
fit and requisite, for the ordering, managing and despatch- 
ing of the affairs of the said Governor and Company, and 
their successors; and, from time to time, to make, ordain, 



248 APPENDIX. 

constitute or repeal, such laws, statutes, orders and ordi- 
nances, forms and ceremonies of government and magis- 
tracy, as to them shall seem meet, for the good and wel- 
fare of the said Company, and for the government and 
ordering of the lands and hereditaments, hereinafter men- 
tioned to be granted, and of the people that do, or at any 
time hereafter shall, inhabit or be within the same ; so as 
such laws, ordinances and constitutions, so made, be not 
contrary and repugnant unto, but, as near as may be, 
• agreeable to the laws of this our realm of England, con- 
sidering the nature and constitution of the place and peo- 
ple there ; and also to appoint, order and direct, erect and 
settle, such places and courts of jurisdiction, for the hear- 
ing and determining of all actions, cases, matters and 
things, happening within the said Colony and Plantation, 
and which shall be in dispute, and depending there, as 
they shall think fit ; and also to distinguish and set forth 
the several names and titles, duties, powers and limits, of 
each court, office and officer, superior and inferior ; and 
also to contrive and appoint such forms of oaths and at- 
testations, not repugnant, but, as near as may be, agreeable, 
as aforesaid, to the laws and statutes of this our realm, as 
are convenient and requisite, with respect to the due ad- 
ministration of justice, and due execution and discharge 
of all offices and places of trust by the persons that shall 
be therein concerned ; and also to regulate and order the 
way and manner of all elections to offices and places of 
trust, and to prescribe, limit and distinguish the numbers 
and bounds of all places, towns or cities, within the limits 
and bounds hereinafter mentioned, and not herein par- 
ticularly named, who have, or shall have, the power of 
electing and sending of freemen to the said General As- 



APPENDIX'. 249 

sembly ; and also to order, direct and authorize the im- 
posing of lawful and reasonable fines, mulcts, imprison- 
ments, and executing other punishments, pecuniary and 
corporal, upon offenders and delinquents, according to the 
course of other corporations within this our kingdom of 
England ; and again to alter, revoke, annul or pardon, 
under their common seal, or otherwise, such fines, mulcts, 
imprisonments, sentences, judgments and condemnations, 
as shall be thought fit ; and to direct, rule, order and dis- 
pose of, all other matters and things, and particularly that 
which relates to the making of purchases of the native 
Indians, as to them shall seem meet ; whereby our said 
people and inhabitants, in the said Plantations, may be so 
religiously, peaceably and civilly governed, as that, by 
their good life and orderly conversation, they may win 
and invite the native Indians of the country to the knowl- 
edge and obedience of the only true God, and Saviour of 
mankind ; willing, commanding and requiring, and by 
these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, ordaining 
and appointing, that all such laws, statutes, orders and or- 
dinances, instructions, impositions and directions, as shall 
be so made by the Governor, Deputy-Governor, Assistants 
and freemen, or such number of them as aforesaid, and 
published in writing, under their common seal, shall be 
carefully and duly observed, kept, performed and put in 
execution, according to the true intent and meaning of 
the same. And these our letters patent, or the duplicate 
or exemplification thereof, shall be to all and every such 
officers, superior and inferior, from time to time, for the 
putting of the same orders, laws, statutes, ordinances, in- 
structions and directions, in due execution, against us, 
our heirs and successors, a sufficient warrant and dis- 



250 APPENDIX. 

charge. And further, our will and pleasure is, and we 
do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, establish and 
ordain, that yearly, once in the year, forever hereafter, 
namely, the aforesaid Wednesday in May, and at the 
town of Newport, or elsewhere, if urgent occasion do re- 
quire, the Governor, Deputy-Governor and Assistants of 
the said Company, and other officers of the said Company, 
or such of them as the General Assembly shall think fit, 
shall be, in the said General Court or Assembly to be 
held from that day or time, newly chosen for the year en- 
suing, by such greater part of the said Company, for the 
time being, as shall be then and there present ; and if it 
shall happen that the present Governor, Deputy-Governor 
and Assistants, by these presents appointed, or any such 
as shall hereafter be newly chosen into their rooms, or 
any of them, or any other the officers of the said Com- 
pany, shall die or be removed from his or their several 
offices or places, before the said general day of election, 
(whom we do hereby declare, for any misdemeanor or de- 
fault, to be removable by the Governor, Assistants and 
Company, or such greater part of them, in any of the said 
public courts, to be assembled as aforesaid,) that then, and 
in every such case, it shall and may be lawful to and for 
the said Governor, Deputy-Governor, Assistants and Com- 
pany aforesaid, or such greater part of them, so to be as- 
sembled as is aforesaid, in any their assemblies, to pro- 
ceed to a new election of one or more of their Company, 
in the room or place, rooms or places, of such officer or 
officers, so dying or removed, according to their discretions; 
and immediately upon and after such election or elections 
made of such Governor, Deputy-Governor, Assistant or 
Assistants, or any other officer of the said Company, in 



APPENDIX. 251 

manner and form aforesaid, the authority, oiRce and power, 
before given to the former Governor, Deputy-Governor, 
and other officer and officers, so removed, in whose stead 
and place new shall be chosen, shall, as to him and them, 
and every of them, respectively, cease and determine : 
Provided always, and our will and pleasure is, that as 
well such as are by these presents appointed to be the 
present Governor, Deputy-Governor and Assistants, of the 
said Company, as those that shall succeed them, and all 
other officers to be appointed and chosen as aforesaid, 
shall, before the undertaking the execution of the said 
offices and places respectively, give their solemn engage- 
ment, by oath, or otherwise, for the due and faithful per- 
formance of their duties in their several offices and places, 
before such person or persons as are by these presents 
hereafter appointed to take and receive the same, that is 
to say : the said Benedict Arnold, who is hereinbefore 
nominated and appointed the present Governor of the said 
Company, shall give the aforesaid engagement before 
William Brenton, or any two of the said Assistants of the 
said Company ; unto whom we do by these presents give 
full power and authority to require and receive the same ; 
and the said William Brenton, who is hereby before 
nominated and appointed the present Deputy-Governor of 
the said Company, shall give the aforesaid engagement 
before the said Benedict Arnold, or any two of the As- 
sistants of the said Company ; unto whom we do by these 
presents give full power and authority to require and re- 
ceive the same ; and the said William Boulston, John 
Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas Olney, John Smith, 
John Greene, John Coggeshall, James Barker, William 
Field, and Joseph Clarke, who are hereinbefore nominated 



252 APPENDIX. 

and appoinlcd the present Assistants ot" the said Company, 
shall give the said engagement to their officers and places 
respectively belonging, before the said Benedict Arnold 
and William Bronton, or one of them; to whom respec- 
tively we do hereby give full power and authority to re- 
quire, administer or receive the same : and further, our 
will and pleasure is, that all and every other future Gov- 
ernor or Deputy-Governor, to be elected and chosen by 
virtue of these presents, shall give the said engagement 
before two or more of the said Assistants of the said Com- 
pany for the time being ; unto whom we do by these 
presents give full power and autliority to require, admin- 
ister or receive the same ; and the said Assistants, and 
every of them, and all and every other officer or officers 
to be hereafter elected and chosen by virtue of these 
presents, from time to time, shall give the like engage- 
ments, to their offices and places respectively belonging, 
before the Governor or Deputy-Governor for the time be- 
ing ; unto which said Governor, or Deputy-Governor, we 
do by these presents give full power and authority to re- 
quire, administer or receive the same accordingly. And 
we do likewise, for us, our heirs and successors, give and 
grant unto the said Governor and Company, and their 
successors, by these presents, that, for the more peaceable 
and orderly government of the said Plantations, it shall 
and may be lawful for the Governor, I^eputy-Governor, 
Assistants, and all other officers and ministers of the said 
Company, in the administration of justice, and exercise 
of government, in the said Plantations, to use, exercise, 
and put in execution, such methods, rules, orders and di- 
rections, not being contrary or repugnant to the laws and 
statutes of this our realm, as have been heretofore given, 



APPENDIX. 253 

used and accustomed, in such cases respectively, to be 
put in practice, until at tlie next, or some other General 
Assembly, special provision shall be made and ordained in 
the cases aforesaid. And we do further, for us, our heirs 
and successors, give and grant unto the said Governor 
and Company, and their successors, by these presents, 
that it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Gov- 
ernor, or in his absence, the Deputy-Governor, and major 
part of the said Assistants, for the time being, at any time 
when the said General Assembly is not sitting, to nomi- 
nate, appoint and constitute, such and so many com- 
manders, governors and military officers, as to them shall 
seem requisite, for the leading, conducting and training 
up the irdiabitants of the said Plantations in martial affairs, 
and for the defence and safeguard of the said Plantations; 
and that it shall and may be lawful to and for all and 
every such commander, governor and military officer, that 
shall be so as aforesaid, or by the Governor, or, in his ab- 
sence, the Deputy-Governor, and six of the said Assistants, 
and major part of the freemen of the said Company present 
at any General Assemblies, nominated, appointed and con- 
stituted, according to the tenor of his and their respective 
commissions and directions, to assemble, exercise in arms, 
martial array, and put in warlike posture, the inhabitants 
of the said Colony, for their special defence and safety ; 
and to lead and conduct the said inhabitants, and to en- 
counter, expulse, expel and resist, by force of arms, as 
well by sea as by land, and also to kill, slay and destroy, 
by all fitting ways, enterprises and means whatsoever, all 
and every such person or persons as shall, at any time 
hereafter, attempt or enterprise the destruction, invasion, 
detriment or annoyance of the said inhabitants or Planta- 



254 APPENDIX. 

tions ; and to use and exercise the law martial in such 
cases only as occasion shall necessarily require ; and to 
take or surprise, by all ways and means whatsoever, all 
and every such person and persons, with their ship or 
ships, armor, ammunition, or other goods of such persons 
as shall, in hostile manner, invade or attempt the defeat- 
ing of the said Plantation, or the hurt of the said Com- 
pany and inhabitants ; and, upon just causes, to invade 
and destroy the native Indians, or other enemies of the 
said Colony. Nevertheless, our will and pleasure is, and 
we do hereby declare to the rest of our Colonies in New- 
England, that it shall not be lawful for this our Colony 
of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, in America, 
in New-England, to invade the natives nihabiting within 
the bounds and limits of their said Colonies, without the 
knowledge and consent of the said other Colonics. And 
it is hereby declared, that it shall not be lawful to or for 
the rest of the Colonies to invade or molest the native In- 
dians, or any other inhabitants, inhabiting within the 
bounds and limits hereafter mentioned, (they having sub- 
jected themselves unto us, and being by us taken into 
our special protection,) without the knowledge and con- 
sent of the Governor and Company of our Colony of 
Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations. Also our will 
and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare unto all Christian 
Kings, Princes and States, that if any person, which shall 
hereafter be of the said Company or Plantation, or any 
other, by appointment of the said Governor and Company 
for the time being, shall, at any time or times hereafter, 
rob or spoil, by sea or land, or do any hurt or unlawful 
hostility to any of the subjects of us, our heirs or succes- 
sors, or any of the subjects of any Prince or State, being 



APPENDIX. 255 

then in league with us, our heirs or successors, upon com- 
plaint of such injury done to any such Prince or State, or 
their subjects, we, our heirs and successors, will make 
open proclamation within any parts of our realm of En- 
gland, fit for that purpose, that the person or persons com- 
mitting any such robbery or spoil shall, within the time 
limited by such proclamation, make full restitution or 
satisfaction of all such injuries, done or committed, so as 
the said Prince, or others so complaining, may be fully 
satisfied and contented ; and, if the said person or persons 
who shall commit any such robbery or spoil, shall not 
make satisfaction, accordingly, within such time, so to be 
limited, that then we, our heirs and successors, will put 
such person or persons out of our allegiance and protection," 
and that then it shall and may be lawful and free for all 
Princes or others, to prosecute, with hostility, such of- 
fenders, and every of them, their and every of their pro- 
curers, aiders, abettors and counsellors, in that behalf: 
Provided also, and our express will and pleasure is, and 
we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, 
ordain and appoint, that these presents shall not, in any 
manner, hinder any of our loving subjects, whatsoever, 
from using and exercising the trade of fishing upon the 
coast of New-England, in America ; but that they, and 
every or any of them, shall have full and free power and 
liberty to continue and use the trade of fishing upon the 
said coast, in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any 
arms of the seas, or salt water, rivers and creeks, where 
they have been accustomed to fish ; and to build and set 
upon the waste land, belonging to the said Colony and 
Plantations, such wharves, stages and work-houses, as 
shall be necessary for the salting, drying and keeping of 



256 APPENDIX. 

their fish, to be taken or gotten upon that coast. And 
further, for the encouragement of the inhabitants of our 
said Colony of Providence Plantations to set upon the 
business of taking whales, it shall be lawful for them, or 
any of them, hax^ng struck whale, dubertus, or other 
great fish, it or them to pursue unto any part of that coast, 
and into any bay, river, cove, creek or shore, belonging 
thereto, and it or them, upon the said coast, or in the said 
bay, river, cove, creek or shore, belonging thereto, to kill 
and order for the best advantage, without molestation, 
they making no wilful waste or spoil ; any thing in these 
presents contained, or any other matter or thing, to the 
contrary notwithstanding. And further also, we are gra- 
ciously pleased, and do hereby declare, that if any of the 
inhabitants of our said Colony do set upon the planting of 
vineyards (the soil and climate both seeming naturally to 
concur to the production of wines) or be industrious in 
the discovery of fishing banks, in or about the said Colony, 
we will, from time to time, give and allow all due and 
fitting encouragement therein, as to others in cases of like 
nature. And further, of our more ample grace, certain 
knowledge, and mere motion, we have given and granted, 
and by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, do 
give and grant unto the said Governor and Company of 
the English Colony of Rhode-Island and Providence 
Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, in New-England, in 
America, and to every inhabitant there, and to every 
person and persons trading thither, and to every snch 
person or persons as are or shall be free of the said Colony, 
full power and authority, from time to time, and at all 
times hereafter, to take, ship, transport and carry away, 
out of any of our realms and dominions, for and towards 



APPENDIX. 257 

the plantation and defence of the said Colony, such and 
so many of our loving subjects and strangers as shall or 
will willingly accompany them in and to their said Colony 
and Plantation ; except such person or persons as are or 
shall be therein restrained by us, our heirs and successors, 
or any law or statute of this realm : and also to ship and 
transport all and all manner of goods, chattels, merchan- 
dises, and other things whatsoever, that are or shall be 
useful or necessary for the said Plantations, and defence 
thereof, and usually transported, and not prohibited by 
any law or statute of this our realm ; yielding and paying 
unto us, our heirs and successors, such the duties, cus- 
toms and subsidies, as are or ought to be paid or payable 
for the same. And further, our will and pleasure is, 
and we do, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain, de- 
clare and grant, unto the said Governor and Company, 
and their successors, that all and every the subjects of us, 
our heirs and successors, which are already planted and 
settled within our said Colony of Providence Plantations, 
or which shall hereafter go to inhabit within the said 
Colony, and all and every of their children, which have 
been born there, or which shall happen hereafter to be 
born there, or on the sea, going thither, or returning from 
thence, shall have and enjoy all liberties and immunities 
of free and natural subjects within any the dominions of 
us, our heirs or successors, to all intents, constructions and 
purposes, whatsoever, as if they, and every of them, were 
born within the realm of England, And further, know 
ye, that we, of our more abundant grace, certain knowl- 
edge and mere motion, have given, granted and confirmed, 
and, by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, 
do give, grant and confirm, unto the said Governor and 

33 



258 APPENDIX. 

Company, and their successors, all that part of our do- 
minions in New-England, in America, containing the Na- 
hantick and Nanhyganset, alias Narragansett Bay, and 
countries and parts adjacent, bounded on the west, or 
westerly, to the middle or channel of a river there, com- 
monly called and known by the name of Pawcatuck, alias 
Pawcawtuck river, and so along the said river, as the 
greater or middle stream thereof reachcth or lies up into 
the north country, northward, unto the head thereof, and 
from thence, by a strait line drawn due north, until it 
meets with the south line of the Massachusetts Colony ; 
and on the north, or northerly, by the aforesaid south or 
southerly line of the Massachusetts Colony or Plantation, 
and extending towards the east, or eastwardly, three En- 
glish miles to the east and north-east of the most eastern 
and north-eastern parts of the aforesaid Narragansett Bay, 
as the said bay lyeth or cxtendeth itself from the ocean 
on the south, or southwardly, unto the mouth of the river 
which runneth towards the town of Providence, and from 
thence along the eastwardly side or bank of the said river 
(higher called by the name of Seacunck river) up to the 
falls called Patuckett falls, being the most westwardly 
line of Plymouth Colony, and so from the said falls, in a 
strait line, due north, until it meet with the aforesaid line 
of the Massachusetts Colony ; and bounded on the south 
by the ocean : and, in particular, the lands belonging to 
the towns of Providence, Pawtuxet, Warwick, Misquam- 
macock, alias Pawcatuck, and the rest upon the main land 
in the tract aforesaid, together with Rhode-Island, Block- 
Island, and all the rest of the islands and banks in the Nar- 
ragansett Bay, and bordering upon the coast of the tract 
aforesaid, (Fisher's Island only excepted,) together with 



APPENDIX. 259 

all firm lands, soils, grounds, havens, ports, rivers, waters, 
fishings, mines royal, and all other mines, minerals, 
precious stones, quarries, woods, wood-grounds, rocks, 
slates, and all and singular other commodities, jurisdictions, 
royalties, privileges, franchises, preheminences and here- 
ditaments, whatsoever, within the said tract, bounds, lands 
and islands, aforesaid, or to them or any of them belong- 
ing, or in any wise appertaining : to have and to hold the 
same, unto the said Governor and Company, and their 
successors, forever, upon trust, for the use and benefit of 
themselves and their associates, freemen of the said 
Colony, their heirs and assigns, to be holden of us, our 
heirs and successors, as of the Manor of East-Greenwich, 
in our county of Kent, in free and common soccage, and 
not in capite, nor by knight service ; yielding and paying 
therefor, to us, our heirs and successors, only the fifth 
part of all the ore of gold and silver, which, from time to 
time, and at all times hereafter, shall be there gotten, had, 
or obtained, in lieu and satisfaction of all services, duties, 
fines, forfeitures, made or to be made, claims and demands 
whatsoever, to be to us, our heirs or successors, therefor 
or thereout rendered, made, or paid, any grant, or clause 
in a late grant, to the Governor and Company of Con- 
necticut Colony, in America, to the contrary thereof in 
any wise notwithstanding ; the aforesaid Pawcatuck river 
having been yielded, after much debate, for the fixed and 
certain bounds between these our said Colonies, by the 
agents thereof; who have also agreed, that the said Paw- 
catuck river shall be also called alias Norrogansctt or Nar- 
rogansctt river ; and, to prevent future disputes, that 
otherwise might arise thereby, forever hereafter shall be 
construed, deemed and taken to be the Narrogansett river 



260 APPENDIX. 

in our late grant to Connecticut Colony mentioned as the 
easterly bounds of that Colony. And further, our will 
and pleasure is, that in all matters of public controversy, 
which may fall out between our Colony of Providence 
Plantations, and the rest of our Colonies in New-England, 
it shall and may be lawful to and for the Governor and 
Company of the said Colony of Providence Plantations, to 
make their appeals therein to us, our heirs and successors, 
for redress in such cases, within this our realm of En- 
gland : and that it shall be lawful to and for the inhabi- 
tants of the said Colony of Providence Plantations, with- 
out let or molestation, to pass and repass, with freedom, 
into and through the rest of the English Colonies, upon 
their lawful and civil occasions, and to converse, and hold 
commerce and trade, with such of the inhabitants of our 
other English Colonies as shall be willing to admit them 
thereunto, they behaving themselves peaceably among 
them ; any act, clause, or sentence, in any of the said 
Colonies provided, or that shall be provided, to the con- 
trary in any wise notwithstanding. And lastly, we do, 
for us, our heirs and successors, ordain and grant unto the 
said Governor and Company, and their successors, by 
these presents, that these our letters patent shall be firm, 
good, effectual, and available in all things in the law, to all 
intents, constructions and purposes whatsoever, according 
to our true intent and meaning hereinbefore declared ; and 
shall be construed, reputed and adjudged in all cases most 
favorably on the behalf, and for the best benefit and be- 
hoof, of the said Governor and Company, and their suc- 
cessors ; although express mention of the true yearly 
value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of 
any other gifts or grants by us, or by any of our progeni- 



APPENDIX. 261 

tors or predecessors, heretofore made to the said Governor 
and Company of the Enghsh Colony of Rhode-Island and 
Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, New- 
England, in America, in these presents is not made, or 
any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation or re- 
striction, heretofore had, made, enacted, ordained or pro- 
vided, or any other matter, cause or thing whatsoever, to 
the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding. In 
witness whereof, we have caused these our letters to be 
made patent. Witness ourself at Westminster, the eighth 
day of July, in the fifteenth year of our reign. 

, By the King : HOWARD. 

The above Charter has been copied from the 
Laws of the State of Rhode-Island^ published in 
1822, under the supermtendence of the Hon. Henry 
Bowen, Secretary of the State, and compared with 
the original. Some of the copies, in other publi- 
cations, are incorrect. A persuasion that compara- 
tively few of our citizens possess an accurate copy 
of this document, which is distinguished for its en- 
larged and enlightened principles of civil and re- 
ligious freedom, and which continues still to be the 
fundamental law of the State, has induced its in- 
sertion in this volume. 

The Charter was obtained at an auspicious mo- 
ment, when Charles II., having recently ascended 
the throne, was not disposed to deny favors to any 
of his subjects. By this Charter all the powers of 



262 APPENDIX. 

government were conferred upon the Colony, the 
King not havmg reserved to himself the right of 
revising its proceedings. At no other period, 
probably, could such extensive privileges have 
been obtained. 



No. XXII. 

Decision of Carr, ttc, relative to JJIisrmamacock. 

We, by the power given us by his Majesty's commis- 
sion, having heard the complaints of some of his Majesty's 
subjects, purchasers of certain lands called Misquamacock, 
lying on the eastern side of Pawcatuck river, and having 
likewise heard all the pretences of those by whom they 
have suffered great oppressions, and considering the 
grounds from whence these differences and injuries have 
proceeded, and endeavoring to prevent the like for the 
future, do declare, that no colony hath any just right to 
dispose of any lands, conquered from the natives, unless 
both the cause of that conquest be just, and the lands lie 
within those bounds which the King by his charter hath 
given it, nor to exercise any authority beyond those 
bounds ; which we desire all his Majesty's subjects to 
take notice offer the future, lest they incur his Majesty's 
displeasure, and sutler a deserved punishment. We like- 
wise declare, that all those gifts or grants of any lands, 
lying on the eastern side of Pawcatuck river, and a north 
line drawn to the Massachusetts, from the midst of the 
ford near to Thomas Shaw's house, and in the King's 



APPENDIX. ^bJ 

Province, made by his Majesty's Colony of the Massachu- 
setts, to any person whatsoever, or by that usurped au- 
thority called the United Colonies, to be void. And we 
hereby command all such as are therein concerned to re- 
move themselves and their goods from the said lands, be- 
fore the nine and twentieth day of September next. In 
the mean time, neither hindering the Pequot Indians from 
planting there this summer, nor those of the King's 
Province, who are the purchasers, from improving the 
same, as they will answer the contrary. Given under 
our hands and seals, at Warwick, April 4th. 1665. 

ROBERT CARR, [L. S.] 

GEORGE CARTWRIGHT, [L. S.] 

SAMUEL MAVERICK, [L. S.] 

[Colony Records.] 



No. XXIII. 

Commission from Can\ <fec., 1665. 

Whereas, by the authority given us by his sacred 
Majesty, our dread Sovereign, to provide for the peace 
and safety of all his Colonies here in America, and in a 
more especial manner for tliat part of it called the Nar- 
ragansett country, and by his Majesty commanded now to 
be called the King's Province: We did, by commission 
under our hands and seals, dated at Petaqumskocte March 
the twentieth 1664, appoint, authorize, and in his Majesty's 
name require, Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, Escphres, 
John Coggeshall, James Barker, Joseph Clarke, WilHam 
Field, Thomas Olney, Roger Williams, William BaulstoU; 



264 APPENDIX. 

John Sanford, Randall Ilowldon, Walter Todd, John 
Porter and John Greene, Gntlcmen, to exercise the power 
and authority of Justices of the peace or magistrates, 
throughout the whole compass of this his Majesty's 
Province, and to do whatsoever they think best for the 
peace and safety of the said Province, and as near as they 
can to the English laws, till his Majesty's pleasure be 
farther known therein ; and in matters of greater conse- 
quence, any seven of them, whereof the Governor or 
Deputy Governor shall be one, shall be a Court to deter- 
mine any business: Our intent and meaning was and is, 
that the said commission should be no longer in force, 
than until the 3d. of May next, and that then and thence- 
forward, the Governor and Deputy Governor, and all the 
Assistants for the time being of his Majesty's Colony of 
Rhode-Island &c. shall be Justices of the peace. And 
therefore by the power given us from his Majesty, we 
order and appoint the Governor and Deputy Governor, 
and all the Assistants of the said Colony, for the time 
being, to be and to exercise the authority of Justices of 
the peace in this the King's Province, and to do whatever 
they think best for the peace and safety of the said Prov- 
ince, and as near as they can to the English laws, till his 
Majesty's pleasure be farther known therein ; and in 
matters of greater consequence, any seven of them, where- 
of the Governor or Deputy Governor shall be one, shall 
be a Court to determine any business. Given under our 
hands and seals, at Warwick, April Sth, 16G5. 

ROBERT CARR, [L. S.] 

GEORGE CARTWRIGHT, [L. S.] 

SAMUEL MAVERICK, [L. S.] 

[Colony Records.] 



APPENDIX. 265 

\o. XXIV.— [p. 120.] 

Episcopal C/mrc/i. 

The followiiicf iiccount of the establishment ol' 
the Episcopal Church in Rhode-Island is taken 
from an historical account of the '' Society for the 
propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, by 
David Humphries, D. D., Secretary to the Sosiety, 
London, 1730." 

"In September 1702, the Church-wardens of Rhode- 
Island, wrote to the Society, 'That they cannot forbear 
expressing their great joy in being under the patronage of 
so honorable a Corporation, through whose pious en- 
deavors, with God's assistance, the Church of England 
hath so fair a prospect of flourishing in those remote parts 
of the world, and among the rest of her small branches, 
theirs also in Rhode-Island : That though it is not four 
years since they began to assemble themselves together 
to worship God after the manner of the Church of En- 
gland, yet have they built them a church, finished all 
on the outside, and the inside is pewed well, though not 
beautiful ; and whatsoever favors the Society shall be- 
stow upon them towards the promoting of their Church, 
shall be received with the humblest gratitude, and 
seconded with the utmost of their abilities.' p. 61, 62. 

" The Society resolved to send a Missionary hither, 
both on account of their being the first, and also a nume- 
rous people, settled on a flourishing Island. The Rev, 
Mr. Honyman was appointed in 1704. He discharged 

34 



266 APPENDIX. 

the duties of his mission with great dihgence. p. 318, 319. 
He represented also very earnestly to the Society, the 
want of a Missionary at a town called Providence, about 
thirty miles from Newport, a place very considerable for 
the number of its inhabitants. The Society appointed 
in the next year (1723) the Rev. Mr. Pigot Missionary 
there. Besides the faithful discharge of his duty at his 
own station, Mr. Honyman hath been farther instru- 
mental in gathering several congregations at Naragansett, 
Tiverton, Freetown, and at the above mentioned place, 
Providence, p. 320, 321. 

" The people of Naragansett county (North-Kingston) 
made application to the Bishop of London, about the year 
1707, for a Missionary, and built a church soon after by 
the voluntary contributions of its inhabitants. In the 
year 1717, the Society appointed the Rev. Mr. Guy to 
that place ; he arrived there soon after, and entered upon 
his mission with much zeal. He removed to South- 
Carolina, in 1719. The Rev. Mr. M'cSparran was ap- 
pointed Missionary there in 1720. p. 324, 326. 

'■' The chief inhabitants of Bristol, in the year 1720, 
wrote very earnest letters to the Bishop of London and to 
the Society, for a Minister of the Church of England, 
and promised to build a church. The Rev. Mr. Orrem 
was sent Missionary here in 1722. Mr. Orrem gained the 
esteem and affection of the people very much, and pro- 
ceeded in his mission with success." p. 331, 332. 



APPENDIX. 2(37 

No. XXV.— [p. 126.] 

Philip^s Jfar. 

On the 29th of March, 1676, a large body of In- 
dians attacked Providence and burned more than 
thirty houses in the north part of the town, in one 
of which were the tow n records. They were saved 
by being thrown into the Mooshausick ; from thence 
they were afterwards taken, though much injured, 
and sent to Newport for safe keeping, where they 
remained during the remainder of the war. 

Philip's War kisted more than a year, and was 
the most distressing period that New-England had 
ever seen, and threatened the total extirpation of 
her colonies. About six liundrcd men, the flower 
of her strength, fell in battle or were butchered by 
the savages. In Massachusetts, Plymouth and 
Rhode-Island, twelve or thirteen towns were utterly 
destroyed. About six hundred dwelling houses 
were burned ; a heavy debt was contracted, and a 
vast amount of property destroyed. There were 
few families who did not lose some beloved relative 
in this calamitous war, and a general gloom spread 
through the country. 



268 APPENDIX. 

No. XXVI. 

A list of the Presidents of the Colony of Rkode- 
Island and Providence Plantatmis, under ilic 
first Patent; and of the Governors^ under the 
second Charter , collected from the State Pecords. 

Presidents under the first Patent. 

1647 John Coggeshcall, to 1648 

1648 Jeremiah Clarke, to 1649 

1649 John Smith, to 1650 

1650 Nicholas Easton, to 1652 
In the year 1651, William Coddington went to 

England, and procured from the Council of State, 
a commission, dated April 3, 1651, constituting 
him Governor for life of Rhode-Island, Canonicut, 
cfec, with which he returned about the 1st of Au- 
gust, of that year. This produced much uneasiness 
in the Colony. All the inhabitants on the main, 
refused to submit to Coddington's government. 
The Colony appointed Roger Williams and John 
Clarke to proceed to England, to procure the 
repeal of Coddington's commission. After much 
opposition, they effected this in 1652. Mr. Will- 
iams returned, and at a General Election, held 
at Warwick, on the 12th of September, 1654, was 
chosen President of the Colony. Dr. Clarke con- 
tinued in England as the Colony's agent, till he ob- 
tained the Charter granted by Charles II. in 1663. 
1654 Roger Williams, to 1657 

1657 Benedict Arnold, to 1660 



APPExNDlX. 2G9 

1G60 William Brenton, to 1662 

1662 Benedict Arnold, to 1663 

Governors under tlie second Charter. 

1663 Benedict Arnold, to 1666 
1666 William Brenton, to 1669 
1669 Benedict Arnold, to 1672 
1672 Nicholas Easton, to 1674 
1674 William Coddington, to 1676 

1676 Walter Clarke, to 1677 

1677 Benedict Arnold, to 1679 

1679 John Cranston, to 1680 

1680 Peleg Sanford, to 1683 
1683 William Coddington, to 1685 

1685 Henry Bull, to 1686 

1686 Walter Clarke 

1686 The Charter superseded by Sir Ednmnd 
Andross, but restored in 

1689 Henry Bull, to 1690 

1690 John Easton, to 1695 

1695 Caleb Carr, to 1696 

1696 Walter Clarke, to 1698 
1698 Samuel Cranston, to 1727 
1727 Joseph Jenckes, to 1732 
1732 William Wanton, to 1734 
1734 John Wanton, to 1741 
1741 Richard Ward, to 1743 
1743 William Greene, to 1745 

1745 Gideon Wanton, to 1746 

1746 William Greene, to 1747 



270 APPENDIX. 

1747 Gideon Wanton, to 1748 

1748 William Greene, to 1755 
1755 Stephen Hopkins, to 1757 

1757 William Greene, to 1758 

1758 Stephen Hopkins, to 1762 

1762 Samuel Ward, to 1763 

1763 Stephen Hopkins, to 1765 
1765 Samuel Ward, to 1767 

1767 Stephen Hopkins, to 1768 

1768 Josias Lyndon, to 1769 

1769 Joseph Wanton, to 1775 
1775 Nicholas Cooke, to 1778 
1778 William Greene, to 1786 
1786 John Collins, to 1789 
1789 Arthur Fenner, to 1805 

1805 Henry Smith, acting Governor to 1806 

1806 Isaac Wilbour, lieutenant Governor to 1807 

1807 James Fenner, to 1811 
1811 William Jones, to 1817 
1817 Nehemiah R. Knight, to 1821 
1821 William C. Gibbs, to 1824 
1824 James Fenner, to 1831 
1831 Lemuel H. Arnold, to 1833 
1833 John Brown Francis. 



R D 1 0. 8 



OFFICERS 

OF 

Elected July 19, 1837. 

JOHN ROWLAND, 

President. 

CHRISTOPHER G. CHAMPLIN, 

First Vice-President. 

ROMEO ELTON, 

Second Vice-President. 

THOMAS H. WEBB, 

Secretary. 

THOMAS W. DORR, 

Treasurer. 

WILLIAM R. STAPLES, 

Librarian and Cabinet Keeper of the Northern District. 

BENJAMIN B. HOWLAND, 
Librarian and Cabinet Keeper of the Southern District. 

TRUSTEES. 

DAVID BENEDICT, 
STEPHEN BRANCH, 
THOMAS H. WEBB, 
THOMAS F. CARPENTER, 
ALBERT G. GREENE, 
JOHN CARTER BROWN, 
ROBERT JOHNSTON, 
WILLIAM G. GODDARD, 
JOHN PITMAN, 
RICHARD J. ARNOLD, 
JOSEPH L. TILLINGPIAST, 
EDWARD B. HALL. 

COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION, 

Elected by the Trustees, 1837. 
ROMEO ELTON, 
ALBERT G. GREENE, 
WILLIAM G. GODDARD. 



CIRCULAR 

OK 

The Society would call the attention of members and correspondents^ 
to the following subjects : 

1. Topographical Sketches of towns and villages, including an ac- 
count of their soil, agriculture, manufactures, commerce, natural cu- 
riosities and statistics. 

3. Sketches of the history of the settlement and rise of such towns 
and villages; and of the introduction and progress of commerce, manu- 
factures, and the arts, in them. 

3. Biograpliical Notices of original settlers, revolutionary patriots, and 
other distinguished men who have resided in this State. 

4. Original letters and documents, and papers illustrating any of these 
subjects ; particularly those which shew the private habits, manners or 
pursuits of our ancestors, or are connected with the general history of 
this State. 

5. Sermons, orations, occasional discourses and addresses, books, 
pamphlets, almanacs and newspapers, printed in this State ; and manu- 
scripts, especially those written by persons born or residing in this State. 

6. Accounts of the Indian tribes which formerly inhabited any part of 
this State, their numbers and condition when first visited by the whites, 
their general character and peculiar customs and manners, their wars 
and treaties, and their original grants to our ancestors. 

7. The Indian names of the towns, rivers, islands, bays, and other re- 
markable places within this State, and the traditional import of those 
names. 

8. Besides these, the Society will receive donations of any other 
books, pamphlets, manuscripts and printed documents. 



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